Given increasing focus on procurement and how it supports the delivery of climate change outcomes within Climate Change reporting duties it is important to determine and collate, where possible, how specific procurements have supported embodied carbon ambitions. Public bodies should outline how their procurement practices comply with their organisation’s Procurement Strategy as part of their Annual Procurement Report, which includes activity that complies with the Sustainable Procurement Duty such as climate change strategies.
Public bodies are also required to report on how their procurement policies and activities contributed to compliance with climate change duties in their Annual Climate Change Report (information contained in these sections of each report can be identical or linked). Collaboration between climate and procurement colleagues is essential to ensure it is clear how procurement is supporting organisational climate change strategies.
Any detail that can be provided on embodied carbon through procurement activities is useful both for establishing baselines and sharing good practice lessons with others.
Public Sector Leadership on the Global Climate Emergency Guidance, October 2021 emphasises the role of carbon in future procurement activities of all public bodies to help achieve carbon reduction targets and encourages streamlined reporting on climate change and procurement.
This includes identifying further opportunities to develop innovative embodied carbon solutions with markets, how public bodies have delivered embodied carbon outcomes through commissioning, procurement and contract management as well as remaining barriers which enhanced collaboration may help address.
As a result:
