3.1 Aims of the Matrix

To bring about the changes and development required for effective green procurement, organisations need to review how well they are currently performing, establish their current areas of strength and weakness assess the quality and level of support within the organisation and identify where they want to get to next. This will allow you to identify priority areas for change.

To establish your organisation's profile, the first task is to have to completed the self-assessment matrix outlined in Figure 1.1 

The self-assessment matrix is divided into columns and rows. Each column of the matrix addresses the five key organisational issues that need to be addressed to allow effective implementation of green procurement:

1. Policy
2. Internal awareness
3. Supply market
4. Innovation
5. Regulation/enforcement

The rows numbered from 0 – 4 represent increasingly developed organisational methods and activities to address these issues.

Once completed, the profile will portray your organisation’s current performance in these five areas, indicating how advanced they are, and whether there is a balance across them. The eventual aim is to move your organisation up through the levels towards ‘best practice’ performance and in doing so develop balance across the columns.

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1 The matrix template used for this tool has been adapted from the Energy Management Matrix outlined in ‘Report 13: Reviewing Energy Management’ produced by the Building Research Establishment as part of the UK Energy Efficiency Best Practice Programme 

Figure 1: Self-Assessment Matrix

3.2 Completing the Matrix

To complete the matrix for your organisation, these steps should be followed:

1. Take a photocopy of the matrix. Review each column one at a time then mark the place in each column which best describes your organisation’s current methods and activities used to address each issue. The mark may be placed in a cell or between cells if this is more accurate. For example, if your organisation covers the criteria outlined in level 1 and is more comprehensive, but doesn’t quite meet the level 2 criteria then the mark should be placed between cells 1 and 2.

2. Once you have placed a mark in each column join up the marks to produce a graph line to create your Organisation Profile. This indicates how balanced green procurement is across your organisation. Examples of balanced and unbalanced Organisation Profiles are shown in Figure 2

Figure 2– Balanced and Unbalanced Organisation Profiles

5. STEP 5 - DEVELOP AN ACTION PLAN TO OVERCOME BARRIERS

Having identified the key barriers to green procurement within your organisation, created your Organisation Profile, and established a list of priority areas for change; the fifth and final step is to develop an action plan for improved green procurement.

Listed in sections 5.1 to 5.5 are a number of actions that can be taken to overcome barriers in each of the categories of the matrix. These actions have been listed in order of priority to allow local authorities that are only able to adopt one activity to select the action that is likely to yield the highest returns.

To develop the action plan the following steps should be taken:

5.1 Policy

1. Develop a formal green procurement policy, either as a stand-alone document or as part of the main procurement policy that is adopted at the organisation level. This is one of the key ways to overcome barriers to green procurement, as it will provide clear aims and objectives for the organisation. Regular review of the policy will ensure it remains relevant and realistic.
2. When developing the policy it is important to gain top-level buy-in to ensure enforcement across the organisation. It is also important to gain lower level buy-in, particular of those that would be directly involved in implementing the policy, to increase interest and awareness.
3. Once a policy has been developed a senior manager needs to act as a champion for the policy to ensure it remains high profile, that there is clear leadership and that it is driven forward.

Additional Resources

• See Tool A for assistance in the development (or enhancement) and implementation of a green procurement policy for your organisation.
• See Tool B for assistance on producing procedures for ensuring environmental considerations are taken on board throughout the procurement process.

5.2 Internal Awareness

1. Assign responsibilities for implementing the policy, outline those that are accountable for the policy and identify those that must be informed of the policy to ensure there is a clear focus for internal awareness raising.
2. Develop a programme of training/knowledge sharing for all employees to promote and raise awareness on green procurement, its benefits and external drivers, to increase interest. Have specific training for employees with responsibility for choosing goods, and for employees who let contracts.
3. Hold one-off workshops and seminars for intensive awareness raising throughout the organisation on the organisation’s position, policy and strategy for green procurement. These should be aimed at staff of all levels involved in procurement and environmental management.
4. Issue regular bulletins / reminders on what products, goods or services are to be purchased green and which are not.
5. Develop a series of educational programmes to continually improve market awareness and keep up with the latest developments in green products and services.
6. Hold tailor-made training to educate end-users on the quality and performance of green products.
7. Hold training for product specifiers on the Green Purchasing Market to raise awareness of what can or cannot be specified without contravening EU regulations for competitive procurement, and how to draw up specifications for green products.

Additional Resources

• See Tool G for assistance on sources of available information on environmental products and services relevant to local authorities across Europe, and information on purchasing consortia.

5.3 Supply Market

1. Focus on one or two areas first, for examples recycled content of paper or timber procurement. The areas can be identified through a formal risk assessment or through internal discussions, but this will allow a step-by-step approach to be taken.
2. Undertake internal market research to understand the market place and what it has to offer.
3. Organisations should work more closely with suppliers to improve the quality of green products.
4. Buyers, environmental experts and end-users should work together on the development of specifications.
5. Suppliers should be encouraged to promote their green products to demonstrate their quality and performance in comparison with conventional products.
6. Initial pricing of green products has been high due to traditional low demand. Internal compliance through enforcement of green procurement policies and better management of maverick spend will increase the demand for green products thus decreasing the price.
7. High prices can also be addressed through the use of business cases to elected members to outline the whole life cost of environmental good and services.

Additional Resources

• See Tool H for assistance on good practice approaches to working with suppliers to improve environmental performance and working with suppliers to enhance markets for environmentally responsible services and products.

5.4 Innovation

1. Working groups should be developed to investigate new products and keep up to date with latest developments.
2. Build research / keeping up to date with new products into employees’ training requirements through appraisal systems and Continuing Professional Development.
3. Encourage suppliers to offer free samples/trials of new products to encourage innovation amongst buyers.
4. Start to think about long term, partnership contracts – there are good examples of this in highways and waste management sectors.
5. Investigate joint tendering with other organisations to gain better prices for green products and services.
6. Investigate grant funding for new initiatives.
7. Learn and share knowledge between purchasers by networking.

5.5 Regulation/ Enforcement

1. Give buyers power to enforce the use of green products through approved internal rules and procurement strategies/policies.Build monitoring procedures into the green procurement policy. It will be necessary to consider what evidence it is possible to obtain when defining any specific green materials / products in the policy, and train relevant staff on what that evidence should look like.
2. Use an e-procurement system to prevent off-contract spends by always making the system default to the environmental product, removing alternative non-environmental options to ensure buyers can only select green products and services, or provide a pre green-filtered catalogue for staff e.g. for stationery. Have the uptake of environmental materials as a Key Performance Indicator in the contract to monitor performance in this area, and include requirements for reporting on this performance in the contract award.
3. Develop a systematic procedure for contract monitoring to collate internal information and report on progress towards implementing policies.

ANNEX of TOOL C

6.1 Methodology

To develop this self-assessment tool, the first step undertaken was research to identify the current common barriers to green procurement within organisations. This was done in the following ways:

6.1.1 RELIEF Project

In January 2001 a research project on green purchasing in Europe, named RELIEF (Environment Relief Potential of Urban Action on Avoidance and Detoxification of Waste Streams through Green Public Procurement, EESD-EVK-2000-00723), was undertaken. This project aimed to identify and understand the internal hurdles to implementing green procurement and understanding why implementation rarely meets expectations within organisations. This project identified that there were five categories of hurdles:

• Aims – no aim of individuals and the municipality to procure green
• Regulations – no external or internal rules on how to procure green
• Information – no information on aims, rules, knowledge, incentives and sanctions
• Knowledge – no knowledge on how to procure green
• Incentive or sanction systems – no incentives to procure green or sanctions if you do procure green.

These key hurdle groups were used a starting point in the development of this tool.

6.1.2 Similar Projects

There are currently many green initiatives and research programmes underway in the field of green procurement. Research into similar projects being undertaken by other organisations was undertaken to review the additional potential key organisational barriers identified by these projects. Similar projects identified have been undertaken by London Remade, United Nations Environment Programme Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, United States Environmental Protection Agency, UK Environment Agency, UK Department of Trade and Industry, Dresden University and Tufts University.

6.1.3 Partners and Other Organisations

A questionnaire derived from Dresden University and Tufts University was used as an evaluation tool, as these institutions have developed similar methods to identify barriers to green procurement. Questionnaires were sent to all LEAP partners and also to members of the London Contracts and Suppliers Group (LCSG), which aims to review the performance of the London Boroughs in the fields of purchasing and supply and formulate policy for Greater London as a whole.  The questionnaire asked organisations to identify barriers they have or are experiencing in trying to implement effective green procurement, and how organisations have sought to overcome these barriers.

Approximately 70 questionnaires were sent out and 11 were received back (from Municipality of Amaroussion, Greece, Municipality of Holargos, Greece, London Borough of Redbridge, UK, Wandsworth Borough Council, UK, London Borough of Hounslow, UK, Leicester City Council, UK, London Borough of Sutton, UK, London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, UK, Municipality of Kallithea, Greece, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, UK, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, UK). The responses to these questionnaires were collated to generate an overall list of barriers encountered. The results were as follows:

Figure 4: Organisational Barriers Encountered to Green Procurement

Figure 5: Extent The Following Factors Have Hindered Organisations From Incorporating Green Procurement

Figure 6: Type of Policies That Would Make Incorporating Green Procurement Easier