Procurement & Food
To reduce carbon and become more sustainable there must be a considered approach to commissioning, sourcing and buying, including if it needs to be purchased in the first place, the level of use of every product, the most appropriate stock levels and reviewing whether an item can be reused or recycled prior to ordering new items.
The drive to constantly reduce costs often favours the cheapest short term option, but this can be the least sustainable option, and will often have a disproportionately high life time carbon cost. When considering a purchase, an understanding of whole lifecycle costs and the potential environmental and social impact will also be necessary.
This section provides information to support sustainable and more efficient procurment, with helpful hints, template procurement plans, best practice examples and a list of useful resources.
A new Procurement for Carbon Reduction (PC4R) toolkit has been developed. The P4CR is currently a working document, primarily designed to help procurement staff reduce carbon emissions from their sector. However there is a wider message and opportunity that all NHS organisations should be aware of. Reducing carbon and procuring sustainably should be a corporate priority and included in your organisation’s sustainable development management plan. It should have an assigned strategic and operational lead. Procuring in a carbon sensitive way should be communicated to all staff and those who supply NHS organisations. The P4CR ‘Roadmap’ and supporting materials are available on the SDU website
