Sustainable Procurement Tools Platform
Reflecting the ongoing role of progressive and local procurement contributing to inclusive growth in Scotland, the Scottish Government Directorate has introduced a new sustainable procurement tools platform, which was developed by a Scottish SME contractor.
The Sustainable Procurement Tools platform has been designed to help Scotland’s public sector organisations implement the sustainable procurement duty by identifying how they can enhance the economic, social and environmental outcomes of their procurement activity.
The platform brings together a number of key tools:
- The Flexible Framework Assessment Tool to assess the current level of performance and actions required to embed good procurement practice to realise intended sustainable outcomes.
- The Prioritisation Tool which assists early-stage strategic planning and brings a standard, structured approach to the assessment of spend categories.
- The Sustainability Test that helps embed relevant and proportionate sustainability requirements in the development of frameworks and contracts.
- Life Cycle Impact Mapping (within Sustainability Test) helps to identify and assess the social and environmental impacts of raw materials, manufacturing and logistics, use and disposal or end of life management.
By using these sustainable procurement tools to assist early-stage strategic planning, Scotland’s public bodies can embed relevant and proportionate requirements in public frameworks and contracts, ensuring a range of local economic, social and environmental benefits are identified and acted upon.
The platform will be used by many organisations throughout Scotland to help recover from Covid-19 in a socially-inclusive and environmentally sustainable way, so the benefits are spread more evenly and to help Scotland meet its climate goals.
The development of the platform was undertaken by Horisk Leslie Development, a Cupar-based SME whose six person team specialise in developing websites, web applications and database solutions.
Although the company had had public sector clients previously, their tender success was sporadic. Support from the Supplier Development Programme enabled them to develop their capacity and capability to bid, with the company going on to secure a place on the Scottish Government Application Design and Development Framework.
The list of suppliers appointed to the framework includes some global companies and household names – but Horisk Leslie have been delighted to win a number of tenders awarded through the framework, demonstrating that smaller, local companies can successfully compete on a larger stage.