Newsletter

May 2010

GOing for Gold

This year a record number of GLA Group projects and programmes have been shortlisted for the National Government Opportunities (GO) Excellence in Public Procurement Awards.

The GLA Group Responsible Procurement Programme and the Building Energy Efficiency Programme are going head to head in the Sustainability Initiative of the Year. The London Development Agency is shortlisted for CompeteFor in the Best Supplier Engagement Initiative category and Transport for London is nominated for its skills and employment work in the Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Benefit in Procurement category.

Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on 15th June. Keep your fingers crossed till then. For more info on the GO awards please click here http://www.govopps.co.uk/awards2010/home.htm

Responsible Procurement eLearning a great success!

The Responsible Procurement (RP) eLearning tool launched on 1st April has received positive feedback from both public and private sector representatives alike.

With this free to use tool the GLA Group aims to promote its experiences of delivering economic, social and environmental benefits, encourage best practice and influence other public sector organisations to improve their procurement performance. The RP eLearning tool provides a quick and easy insight on key Mayoral priorities such as skills and employment, environmental sustainability, equality & diversity and the London Living Wage. It’s free, it’s interactive, it’s fun to use and you can score your knowledge in the test at the end of your session. If you haven’t yet tried it out, have a go by clicking on the following link http://www.london.gov.uk/rp/tool/index.jsp.
A supplier variant of the RP eLearning is being launched at the end of June and will be available through the RP website.

To let us know your feedback please send your responses to responsibleprocurement@tfl.gov.uk

Two E’s in MPS procurement: Environmental Efficiency!

This year marks the fourth consecutive year of Environmental Efficiency Commendations by the MPS. The scheme provides an incentive for Police Officers and Police Staff to make changes to MPS processes and operations in order to deliver improved environmental efficiency.

Special recognition went to Allan Sneller, Category Analyst at the MPS who received a commendation for reducing resource consumption and the use of raw materials, one of the key deliverable included in the MPS Environmental Strategy.

Thanks to Allan’s initiatives, damaged and redundant riot shields which used to be discarded can be repaired or refurbished. Through negotiation with the existing supplier the contract includes a variation to provide the MPS with the option to repair, refurbish and recycle the shields. Initial results revealed 38% of shields avoiding landfill with cost savings of 51%. The outcome demonstrates the shift in culture within Procurement Services to embed Responsible Procurement practices into category and contract management.

For more information on this story please contact fay.davis@met.police.uk

Deputy Mayor meets leading suppliers

On the 18th May, three GLA Group suppliers were invited to showcase their progress on implementing Responsible Procurement to Richard Barnes, the Deputy Mayor of London.

With support from the GLA Group, AssetCo, Carillion and Balfour Beatty Workplace have all embedded Responsible Procurement provisions into their contracts with the London Fire Brigade, Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police respectively. They see the delivery of long term benefits to society and the environment as right thing to do and it also makes good business sense –they are now being requested to comply with similar RP provisions in contracts from clients across both public and private sectors.

Shining example

The GLA Group has recently completed independent audits against the Sustainable Procurement Flexible Framework and have achieved Level 5. The Flexible Framework was developed by the UK government’s Sustainable Procurement Taskforce to evaluate progress in implementing sustainable procurement practices within private and public sector organisations. Achieving Level 5 is the highest level and therefore goes some way to demonstrate the Group’s commitment to sustainable procurement. Bekir Andrews, a consultant at Romec, which audited the GLA Group said: “there aren’t many organisations in the UK at the moment which are implementing level five of the flexible framework or even level four.” Andrews praised the GLA Group for their interaction of members of the group with their suppliers and said it was the finest instance of public sector sustainable procurement he had seen.

Examples of GLA Group RP success stories are documented in recently published case studies which provide detail on the following;

The Fire Brigades review of the supply chain around the storage and distribution of stock from the Distribution Centre which brought in savings of almost £97,000;
The Building Energy and Efficiency Programme (BEEP) is delivering energy efficiency and cost savings through the retrofit of buildings by encouraging innovation and competition in the energy market;
The MPS is reusing the steel from weapons collected as part of amnesty across London for use in a number of construction projects including the London 2012 Olympic Park;
TfL has successfully included requirements related to equality and skills and employment in an engineering and project management framework which covers major projects such as the upgrade of London Underground, the extensions of the Dockland Light Railway and the London Overground network.

Click to access the case studies.

Watch this space

The GLA Group is setting up a Responsible Procurement award scheme to promote the good work of its staff and suppliers. Award applications will open in the autumn, followed by a ceremony for those shortlisted.

Details of how to enter for an award will be announced soon.

Got a story? Get in touch

For more information on any of the articles in the RP newsletter or to get a story published please contact Monica Frega Poggioli at the following email address: ResponsibleProcurement@tfl.gov.uk

To sign up to quarterly updates of the Responsible Procurement newsletter log on to http://www.london.gov.uk/rp/resources/newsletter.jsp