MoreThanWaste.com - UK Government Sustainable Procurement Action Plan, March 2007 (05/03/2007)

This plan provides the foundations required for the successful delivery of the government’s energy review commitments on government procurement. It will also help the UK to meet the requirements of the Energy End-Use and Energy Services Directive, by providing a basis for the public sector to fulfil an "exemplary role" in improving energy efficiency.

Amongst other environmental aims is by 2020, the Government estate would reduce its total waste arising by 30,000 tonnes and recycle around 65,000 tonnes of waste.

Forward from the document

"In the 2005 Sustainable Development strategy (‘Securing the Future’) the Prime Minister committed Government to “lead by example” when spending taxpayers money sustainably. The UK Government and wider public sector buys £150 billion worth of goods and services each year. The Government commissioned a business-led Task Force to provide us with analysis and recommendations on how to achieve our goal in being among the leaders in the EU on sustainable procurement – ‘Procuring the Future’ sets out their findings.

Together with HMT’s ‘Transforming Government Procurement’ (published this January),
this Action Plan forms the central Government response to ‘Procuring the Future’. It
presents a package of actions to deliver the step change we need to ensure that
Government supply-chains and public services will be increasingly low carbon, low
waste, water efficient, respect biodiversity and deliver our wider sustainable
development goals.

Government has already launched a set of challenging sustainable operations targets for
the government estate, in June 2006. However better Government procurement is
essential if those targets are to be achieved and deliver around 1 million tonnes of CO2
savings by 2020.

The science of climate change is now almost universally accepted. Last year’s Stern
report underlined the pressing need for Governments to do more. This Action Plan will
enable the effective use of Government procurement to transform the market for
innovative and sustainable solutions, making them more affordable and widely available.
It presents Government with a means to implement the conclusion to ‘Procuring the
Future’ – that good procurement is sustainable procurement."

David Miliband, Secretary of State Defra
John Healey, Financial Secretary to the Treasury

The Action Plan can be found on the Defra website.


	UK Government Sustainable Procurement Action Plan, March 2007 (05/03/2007) This plan provides the foundations required for the successful delivery of the government’s energy review commitments on government procurement. It will also help the UK to meet the requirements of the Energy End-Use and Energy Services Directive, by providing a basis for the public sector to fulfil an "exemplary role" in improving energy efficiency. Amongst other environmental aims is by 2020, the Government estate would reduce its total waste arising by 30,000 tonnes and recycle around 65,000 tonnes of waste. Forward from the document "In the 2005 Sustainable Development strategy (‘Securing the Future’) the Prime Minister committed Government to “lead by example” when spending taxpayers money sustainably. The UK Government and wider public sector buys £150 billion worth of goods and services each year. The Government commissioned a business-led Task Force to provide us with analysis and recommendations on how to achieve our goal in being among the leaders in the EU on sustainable procurement – ‘Procuring the Future’ sets out their findings. Together with HMT’s ‘Transforming Government Procurement’ (published this January), this Action Plan forms the central Government response to ‘Procuring the Future’. It presents a package of actions to deliver the step change we need to ensure that Government supply-chains and public services will be increasingly low carbon, low waste, water efficient, respect biodiversity and deliver our wider sustainable development goals. Government has already launched a set of challenging sustainable operations targets for the government estate, in June 2006. However better Government procurement is essential if those targets are to be achieved and deliver around 1 million tonnes of CO2 savings by 2020. The science of climate change is now almost universally accepted. Last year’s Stern report underlined the pressing need for Governments to do more. This Action Plan will enable the effective use of Government procurement to transform the market for innovative and sustainable solutions, making them more affordable and widely available. It presents Government with a means to implement the conclusion to ‘Procuring the Future’ – that good procurement is sustainable procurement." David Miliband, Secretary of State Defra John Healey, Financial Secretary to the Treasury [Crown © 2007] The Action Plan can be found on the Defra website.