Carbon Procurement in Wales Hushneara Begum PhD Researcher

Agenda 1.What is carbon dioxide? 2.Wales 3.Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act Carbon Procurement Project 5.Key Findings  Purchases  Tools  Certifications  Wales Council for Voluntary Action  Barriers and Enablers  Multiple Pressures  Sensemaking 6.Recommendations

What is carbon dioxide? Greenhouse gases (GHGs) can be emitted into the atmosphere through transport, land clearance, the production and consumption of food, fuels, manufactured goods, materials, wood, roads, buildings and services. The most dominant greenhouse gas emission is carbon dioxide (carbon).

Wales The Welsh public sector alone spends £5.5 billion per year on external goods and services. Carbon increased by 10% during

Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015

Carbon Procurement Project Project objective (cycle 1) To understand how organisations consider carbon within the procurement process in Wales. Overview 11 interviews over three months. Senior Procurement Heads. Members of the CCCW (public, private and third) and Value Wales (public sector) network. Industries and sectors Charities, construction, National Health Service (NHS), local authorities, higher education institutes, multi-nationals and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Key Findings: Purchases Budgets ranged from £10,000 to £170 million per annum. Organisations providing a supportive service to the industry had smaller budgets. Many organisations play a dual role buying internally and supporting third party procurement activity. NHS: “everything from a cotton wool ball to a helicopter"

Key Finding: Guidance Tools Tools are important as they provide structure and clear audit checks. Value Wales most recognised. Public sector organisations often use tools.

Key Findings: Tools Overview

Key findings: Certifications

Case example: Wales Council for Voluntary Action Emma Waldron, Procurement and Grants Manager at Wales Council shares her experience allocating their recent 'Document Storage' contract. Initiatives include: Restricting the 'document storage' contract to suppliers within a '40-miles radius‘. Reducing the number of document retrieval instances. Introducing a requirement for the supplier to submit an annual mileage report to WCVA so they can monitor the carbon footprint and also to make the supplier more aware of this issue.

Barriers and Enablers

Multiple Pressures "to do more with less money" " It's a bit hard when the targets keep moving." "having to think about it, build it into business as normal and get people to culturally to deal with it, in itself is a bit of a challenge." "...quite exciting in a lot of ways, things moving forward. Foundations laid and now putting the first layer of bricks."

Sensemaking Multiple bodies involved in the area: Climate Change Commission for Wales, Carbon Trust, Value Wales, Welsh Government, National Procurement Service, Cardiff University, European Union. Multiple legislation and policy: Kyoto, 2020 strategy, Well-being of Future Generation (Wales) Act 2015 and the Environmental (Wales) Bill. Education: the area is full of industry terms and technical jargon such as carbon, procurement, emission, footprint, ISO, Green Dragon, energy, life cycle value/costing, accreditation, certifications, tools, framework, embedded carbon, carbon credits, off-setting schemes etc.

Recommendations Research Collaborate with public and private/third sector networks around 'sense-making' and 'stakeholder engagement'. Workshops Share finding and build team dialogue. Tools and Trials Update and integrate current procurement tools to reflect the carbon agenda. Create specific procurement tools for the construction sector. Other Promote a simple structure to organisations: guidance/support bodies, unified message and co- ordinated approach. Encourage statistical targets set on organisational level and monitor. Support smaller organisations, incentivise them to get certifications where suitable, perhaps free or subsidise cost.