Sustainable Procurement Strategy

For your feedback and suggestions to help us to develop a revised Sustainable Procurement Strategy to replace the previous Strategy expiring in March 2025.

The Council’s Procurement Strategy focuses on how we purchase and will focus on promoting economic, environmental and social outcomes that support sustainable growth within the city as well as addressing the significant challenges that the city is facing.

We collected feedback through a variety of different methods, including an online survey, in person workshops, one to one conversations and a well-attended Meet the Buyer event held on 14^th November 2024 in Waverley Court.

We received 61 responses from the Consultation Hub and many more through other engagement methods.

You strongly agreed, that:

• Procurement spend should be more accessible to local organisations and support the growth of local businesses and supply chains
• We should support the creation of more and better fair work opportunities for local people
• We should work with contractors who will support the Council’s environmental and social goals and seek to eliminate unethical practices throughout its supply chain
• We should focus procurement spend to promote the Real Living Wage and wider fair work objectives
• We should focus procurement spend to tackle the climate and nature emergencies and develop adaptation solutions to respond to current and future climate change impacts
• We should focus procurement spend to maximise community benefits to deliver jobs, training opportunities and meaningful improvements within our communities

You agreed that:

• We should focus procurement spend to deliver savings and Best Value outcomes through innovative and sustainable solutions

Based on the feedback we received, we drafted an updated Sustainable Procurement Strategy for 2025-2030 which was recirculated amongst elected members for comment and feedback. The final draft Strategy was approved by the Finance and Resources Committee on 13 March this year.

The Sustainable Procurement Strategy 2025-2030 sets out the Council’s key strategic procurement objectives which deliver the Council’s Business Plan Objectives. The three priorities are to:

1. Maximise the Community Wealth Building outcomes from our procurements for the benefit of our communities and the city
2. Deliver contracts that help meet the Council’s commitment to the climate and nature emergencies and deliver a just transition
3. Deliver savings and Best Value outcomes through innovative and sustainable solutions