LGP Sustainable Choice Newsletter
September 2017

" Incorporate economic, environmental and social considerations in your procurement process."

Sustainable Choice in LGP

With the transition of Sustainable Choice into LGP on 1 July, Sustainable Choice will continue to assist councils to integrate sustainability into their procurement processes. Combining the knowledge and experience of Sustainable Choice with the expertise of LGP is an exciting venture. We look forward to continuing to provide valuable services to councils and to growing and evolving the suite of resources and services we provide. If your council is yet to confirm Sustainable Choice membership with LGP but would like to please contact us for further information.

Members of Sustainable Choice enjoy:

Access to comprehensive suite of online resources including; guides, factsheets, templates, example documents, case studies and links
General advice and guidance when required
Free attendance at Sustainable Procurement Forums
Free attendance at quarterly online video forums
Annual Sustainable Procurement Scorecard and performance report – a ‘health check’ against ISO 20400:2017 – Sustainable Procurement Guidance
Access to tradeshows of sustainable suppliers
Quarterly newsletters updating on innovation, technology, forums, events and case studies
Sustainable Choice database listing suppliers of sustainable products and services

In addition members can access a number of fee based services at a discounted rate, including:

Sustainable procurement training
ISO 20400 training
ISO 20400 detailed gap analysis
Sustainable procurement consulting services

We are always looking for new topics to include in our newsletters and forums. If there is a particular topic relating to sustainable procurement that you would like to see in our newsletters or presented/discussed at one of our forums please contact us.

Sustainable Choice

New Icon!

Sustainable procurement is about good business practice that focuses on socially and ethically responsible procurement and delivering economically sound solutions while minimizing an environmental impact.

Keeping the above in mind Sustainable Choice has designed its new icon to incorporate the four elements of the quadruple bottom line (QBL); Economic, Social, Environmental and Governance.

As the design suggests, each of the four elements work together to achieve the goals of Sustainability and Sustainable Procurement.

Sustainable Choice carefully chose the colour ‘Orange’ for the icon. Orange, a blend of red and yellow, is a mixture of the energy associated with red and the happiness associated with yellow. Orange is associated with meanings of joy, warmth, heat, sunshine, enthusiasm, creativity, success, encouragement, change, determination, health, stimulation, happiness, fun, enjoyment, balance, compassion, freedom, expression, and fascination. All these attributes directly relate to ‘Sustainability’.

Survey time!

The Sustainable Choice Annual Sustainable Procurement Survey has been significantly revised. The 2017 survey has been written to be in line with the new ISO 20400 sustainable procurement guidance standard. Resulting scorecards and performance reports will form a ‘Health Check’ against the ISO standard.

Your 2017 Scorecard and performance report will form a benchmark with which to track your council’s performance against the standard in future subsequent years. The results therefore will not be a reliable comparison of sustainable procurement progress against previous years. However it will be a much better indicator to track sustainable procurement within your council going forward into the future. The recommendations provided in the performance report will identify and assist your council to focus on areas of sustainable procurement where progress would provide the most benefit.

The new ISO 20400 guidance standard is gaining traction across the globe. Procurement processes that follow the steps outlined within the standard are considered best practice in terms of sustainable procurement implementation.

The survey will be sent to General Managers at all councils in early September. A survey assistance tool outlining a breakdown of the survey questions will accompany the survey to help make the data collection process easier. Unlike previous years the survey will not ask for financial data relating to sustainable spend, rather it focuses on sustainability within the procurement process.

All councils are invited to participate in the survey, however this will only be available free of charge to Sustainable Choice members. Non-members wishing to participate are encouraged to do so but will be charged a fee of $500. If you would like to become a member of Sustainable Choice the $500 will be deducted off your membership fee, reducing it to $700, contact us if you want to know more.

Sustainable Choice Database

The Sustainable Choice Database makes the search for sustainable products and services easier for you. The expansive online database lists sustainable products and services, from energy-efficient lighting to recycled furniture and infrastructure products, paper and printing, road base, catering and events supplies. Sustainability indicators have been incorporated into the database to help you identify why a product is considered to be more sustainable than another in order for you to choose the most appropriate for your needs and budget. You can access the database at www.sustainablechoice.lgp.org.au

If you know of a sustainable supplier that isn’t listed on the database please let us know and we will contact them. Similarly if there is a particular product you are looking for and cannot find it on the database please let us know.

Suppliers new to the database:

Paper Australia Pty Ltd (Australian Paper) Printing, publishing, packaging papers

Environmental Enterprises Compostable catering supplies

Local Government Appointments Recruitment

Greenline Group Pty Ltd Outdoor products

Page Boy Laundry Laundry Services

Harnleigh Pty Ltd Power pole replacement, electrical services

New Waste Collection Services Standard
Out for Public Comment

Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA), in collaboration with the NSW Office of the Environment and Heritage and the City of Sydney, is developing a new standard for Waste Collection Services in New South Wales.

As part of the development of this standard, GECA is seeking input from waste industry professionals including service providers, waste generators, consultants, academics, environmental organisations and stakeholders with a particular interest in reducing the environmental impact of manufacturing and service delivery.

The standard is open for public comment until October 2nd and GECA would welcome feedback from councils.

More information and a draft version of the standard is available and can be downloaded here.

Please direct all correspondence regarding making a submission on this standard to:

Good Environmental Choice Australia
Standards Division P (02) 96992850

E standards@geca.org.au

Sustainable Procurement Guide and Videos

The Sustainable Choice team had the opportunity, through the previous partnership between Local Government NSW and the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, to develop some educational resources for all councils on “What is Sustainable Procurement?”. The resources were launched in April this year and include an easy-to-read Guide for local government and two short educational films to assist councils in training and induction. These resources can be accessed via the links below.

Modern Slavery Act

The Australian Government recently announced that it will introduce a Modern Slavery in Supply Chains Reporting Requirement. This follows on from an inquiry, commenced early 2017, into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia.

A consultation paper on the proposed model for a Modern Slavery in Supply Chains Reporting Requirement was released on 16 August. The proposed reporting requirement will require large corporations and other entities (with a proposed total annual revenue >$100M) operating in Australia to publish annual statements outlining their actions to address modern slavery in their operations and supply chains. While medium-sized businesses are not required to report they can voluntarily choose to do so in accordance with the legislation.

What does this mean for local government? Greater supply chain transparency will be available to councils, however only from suppliers that are large enough to be affected by the new law (once passed). This still leaves a significant number of council suppliers that will not be required to provide such transparency, continuing to make it difficult for councils to ensure that their purchasing activities are not associated with modern slavery practices.

Submissions for the consultation close on 20 October 2017.

Further information can be found here.