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Sustainable Procurement

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Sustainable purchasing strategy

Overall aim

This strategy describes how the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will conduct its purchasing activity to support the achievement of sustainable development objectives.. Wider public procurement policy drivers, such as achieving value for money, efficiency, risk management and legal compliance are not covered specifically within this strategy as they are already addressed by existing policies and procedures.

The aim of this strategy is to ensure that goods and services purchased by the Trust are manufactured, delivered, used and managed at end-of-life in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. This strategy has been developed in order to meet the procurement targets set under the Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate .,

The strategy

The Trusts purchasing activity will contribute to the achievement of Government sustainable development objectives, by seeking to optimise the wider social and environmental benefits to society that can derive from effective purchasing decisions and efficient purchasing procedures.

Scope

This strategy applies to the whole of the Trust when conducting procurement activities.

Context

The Government has a crucial role to play in furthering sustainable development through its procurement of goods, services and buildings. With a budget of over £125bn, it can transform markets and collaborate with the private sector to pursue sustainable purchasing policies. The Government has set a target that the UK should be among the leaders in sustainable procurement within the EU by 2009. This strategy sets out how the Trust will help create a step-change in sustainable public procurement, in support of Securing the Future - the UK Government Sustainable Development Strategy .

The need to incorporate sustainable development considerations into procurement is especially pertinent to the NHS. Every year the NHS in England spends in excess of £17 billion on goods and services essential to the running of the health service. Of this, around £4 billion is influenced on a national basis by the Agency. Embracing sustainable procurement will facilitate the Trusts objective of ‘ maximising the contribution of purchasing and supply to improve the health and well-being of the population of England ' and deliver wider government policies where procurement has a role.'.

Everything purchased and used by the Trust has an impact on the environment, on people and communities, but these impacts are not always apparent. Impacts can arise at any stage of the product lifecycle as a result of raw material extraction, processing, manufacture, distribution, use and end-of-life management. In many cases, however, the environmental and social impacts associated with goods and services are not taken into account during the procurement process. The EU Consolidated Procurement Directive advocates the consideration of environmental and social factors in the procurement process, as does the UK Office of Government Commerce and the Treasury when aiming to achieve value for money through procurement.

Key Strategic Objectives

This strategy will be implemented to achieve the following strategic objectives, to ensure the Trust remains a leader in the field of sustainable procurement.

1: Develop policies to facilitate and promote sustainable procurement, taking into account government-wide priorities and guidance.

2: Develop and embed tools that enable sustainability objectives to be addressed in the procurement process.

3: Deliver training that helps embed sustainable procurement objectives within the Trust.

4: Work with suppliers to improve the sustainability performance of the supply chain.

5: Communicate progress to achieve sustainable procurement objectives to Clinical Management Teams.

Supporting objectives

The supporting objectives will be:

1: Develop policies to facilitate and promote sustainable procurement, taking into account government-wide priorities and guidance

1.1 Implement existing policies that support the achievement of sustainable development, such as environmental purchasing, race equality, supporting small to medium enterprises and social enterprises and ethnic and minority businesses

1.2 Develop policies as required to meet wider government priorities, such as Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative, Food and Health Action Plan, sustainable timber and Capturing Innovation to meet specific targets

1.3 Review emerging policies and priorities as required, and develop appropriate courses of action

2: Develop and embed tools that enable sustainability objectives to be addressed in the procurement process

• Ensure that contract specifications meet minimum government standards, such as Quick Wins, sustainable timber, recycled paper, green energy

• Embed government policy and related guidance into the Trusts purchasing procedures, as required

• Introduce relevant sustainability clauses into the Trusts Operations and Policy Procedure Manual, and its Terms and Conditions of Contract, as appropriate

• Work with the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency's Sustainable Procurement Group to ensure sustainability tools are effective and embedded within practice

3: Deliver training that helps embed sustainable procurement objectives within the Agency

• Support CMTs in understanding the impact procurement decisions have upon the environment.

4: Work with suppliers to improve the sustainability performance of the supply chain

• ensure that suppliers complete the online Supplier Environmental Questionnaire upon contract award.

• attribute a minimum of 5% of contract award criteria to supplier sustainability performance, as determined by the Supplier Sustainability Assessment Framework (Annex 1)

• Ensure that category managers measure sustainability performance as part of the contract management process

5: Communicate progress to achieve sustainable procurement objectives to stakeholders

• publish information on the sustainability performance of products, services and suppliers as part of contract award information. sustainability.

Appendix 1

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