Scottish Government Policy
The Scottish Government has a commitment to lead by example on environmental performance, and delivery of this is managed under the banner of the Government's Leading by Example initiative, which is an enabling programme that works with policy and operations across the organisation to support achievement of this goal.
Operations aspects of improving environmental performance on the core estate are managed by Facilities and Estates Services, who use a variety of environmental management tools and initiatives, including the Carbon Management Programme, Scottish Government Travel Plan, Environmental Guardian Network, Earth Hour, and One in Five, a programme to reduce the number of business flights. FES also adopts the Government Buying Standards sustainable procurement practices in its delivery of building maintenance and improvement projects across its estate. An Annual Environmental Report is also produced showing performance against a set of targets.
There is an expectation that all public bodies should follow similar policies and approaches. Implementing environmental management policies and systems can improve resource efficiency and reduce costs and help all types and sizes of organisations, including small organisations, public sector bodies, central Government and local authorities, meet their own environmental and sustainability targets as well as contribute to national targets and policies on climate change, sustainable development, procurement, waste, water, emissions, energy, transport/travel and other environmental issues. Effective environmental management enables sustainable procurement, enhances an organisation's reputation, and improves communication with employees, regulators, and other stakeholders.
There are a number of new reporting requirements on environmental and sustainability performance which have, or are about to, come into play which bear on different parts of the public sector, as a result of changes in the legislative framework, driven primarily by the increased focus on climate change. These include the CRC - Energy Efficiency Scheme, reporting against the public sector climate change duties (Section 44 of the Climate Change Act), reporting of efficiency and sustainability of the civil estate, (Section 76 of the Climate Change Act), and requirements to report sustainability in financial accounts (driven by the FReM, Treasury's Financial Reporting Manual). Scottish Government is current working on proposals to develop a Scottish Sustainability Reporting Framework (SSRF) to provide a coordinated and systematic approach to monitoring and reporting, to help achieve these various environmental /sustainability reporting requirements in the joined up manner and deliver efficiencies. As part of this exercise Scottish Government is assessing the feasibility of adopting SOGE (Whitehall Sustainable Operations of the Government Estate) based measures and targets. The SSRF will have a bearing on environmental management policy and practice in the future.
Factors To Be Considered in Creating Sustainable Specifications/Targets
- Where environmental management is relevant to the performance of the contract it can be referred to in relevant selection criteria, technical specifications, award criteria or contract performance clauses.
- Where appropriate this can cover environmental accountability, including accreditation, environmental management policies, systems, targets and reporting.
- There are a number of national and international standards on environmental management, including EMAS, ISO 14001 and BS8555, in use in Scotland, which may be used. NB Purchasing staff should give equal weight to other equivalent schemes, including any suppliers' formal in-house schemes.
Further Information
More information on the links between environmental management and sustainable procurement is available from the EU's Green Public Procurement website
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/gpp/pdf/toolkit/module1_factsheet_gpp_and_ems.pdf
Contact Details for Leading by Example
Barry Greig
Greener Scotland Directorate
Scottish Government
Tel: 0131 24 45093
Barry.Greig@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Contact Details for Facilities and Estates Services Travel Management
Ruth White
Facilities and Estates Services
Scottish Government
Tel 0131 244 3900
Ruth.white@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Contact Details for Facilities and Estates Services Environmental Management
Diane Campion
Facilities and Estates Services
Scottish Government
Tel 0131 244 5416
Diane.campion@scotland.gsi.giv.uk