Project Overview

Procurement professionals can play a major part in reducing the carbon emissions of their organisations but they need the right information.

The size of an organisation’s carbon footprint is closely linked to the equipment it uses – the carbon that is emitted to use it and to dispose of it. But it can be extremely difficult to calculate this and work out how to trade carbon against cost.

That’s why Forum for the Future and Fife Council have together developed a tool that enables procurement professionals to understand the total cost of a product from its purchase through to, and including, its end of life.

It includes not only the traditional financial costs, but also the amount and cost of the CO2 emitted by the product over the contract period (to the organisation directly or society as a whole).

Fife Council has been using the tool since early 2009 and this earned it the Government Opportunities Sustainability Award in October 2009.

“We are extremely grateful to Forum for the Future for their assistance in developing this excellent tool and I'm sure it will be of great assistance to all organisations which are trying to reduce their carbon footprint and green the supply chain."

- Keith Grieve, Procurement and Supply Chain Management Team Leader, Fife Council.

The need for the tool

The Forum launched the project with Fife after the council identified that procurement had a key role to play in meeting its carbon reduction targets and in controlling its financial costs. Like many organisations, it wanted to be able to understand which product is going to result in fewer emissions over its entire lifetime.

It has always been important to understand the financial implications of procurement decisions, including costs such as maintenance, fuel, training and disposal. The introduction of the Carbon Reduction Commitment means it is essential to consider the financial cost of CO2 emissions. We expect the cost of carbon to grow over time and the CRC and similar schemes to take in an increasing number of organisations.

Tool development

Through our partnership, Forum for the Future and Fife Council developed and piloted the WLC+CO2 tool. The feedback has shown that the tool is simple to use and covers only verifiable information - making it acceptable under EU rules.

We recognised the need to be able to factor in changes in legislation, so the tool can be used with any price of carbon, and can include both an external and internal price, allowing organisations to run internal budget or trading-based schemes.

The WLC+CO2 tool builds on the whole life costing module of Forum’s popular Sustainable Procurement Toolkit, which allows procurers to calculate costs across the whole life of a product. It adds the ability to calculate the costs of CO2 emissions from the product.

The tools are complementary and both can help organisations to embed sustainability into procurement. The Sustainable Procurement Toolkit can be used to review the demand for the product and to plan what action to take during the procurement process to maximise sustainability. The new WLC+CO2 tool can help evaluate tenders.

Tool availability

The tool is now available to organisations at no cost. It has been tested at Fife Council but we are seeking feedback from organisations that have used the toolkit in live procurement to understand if it needs to be further developed. We are also keen to work with organisations to understand the benefits that can be achieved through the use of the tool.

The user guide to the WLC+CO2 tool is available to download on the left hand side of the page.

To get a copy of the tool, provide feedback or find out more, please contact Anna Warrington.

Links

supplymanagement.com, Climate of change, 7th January 2010