Procurement plays a vital role as communities work to achieve their sustainability goals

In a recent American City & County post, Sarah O’Brien, CEO of the non-profit Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC), predicts we’ll see higher expectations for government procurement officers to address sustainability issues in 2022-2023. Another trend O’Brien sees in the future is an increased focus on climate issues.

Yes, government purchasing leaders are often part of cities’ sustainability teams. “City and county procurement officials can start the process by including adherence to sustainability goals as part of their RFP process,” says Ron Homer, chief strategist of U.S. Impact Investing at RBC Global Asset Management. “They can also actively promote community group purchasing programs for solar energy, battery storage and other clean technologies. These programs can help homeowners, businesses and non-profits become more resilient and reduce energy expenses,” Homer’s company is an investment management firm. It provides a range of domestic and global solutions.

Rank your sustainability goals, says Peter Smith, managing director at Procurement Excellence Ltd., who has been involved in public- and private-sector procurement for 40 years. “So, you have to prioritize. Nobody can address everything, not even Unilever or the Department of Defense. So, I’d rather see organizations—private or government sector—really make a difference in a couple of areas, even if they are quite niche, rather than try to take on every challenge and probably fail to achieve much at all.”

Smith says a small city in the Midwest isn’t going to be able to stop the destruction of the Amazon rain forest. “But it could work with suppliers to address local environmental issues or plant new woodland. So, prioritize and look for activities that mean something for your organization and your stakeholders.”

Smith believes cities and counties can achieve success, even in the short term. “Environmental issues are often long-term but look at reducing consumption of single-use plastics, and whether you can recycle more generally. Work with suppliers to reduce packaging. Construction is another good area to focus on—some suppliers are really working hard on sustainable approaches.”

Smith believes broadening the vendor base can help. “I do find that looking to use more ‘diverse’ (in the widest sense) and socially conscious suppliers—minority owned, smaller firms, social enterprises—can be a quick win that might even save money and build a more resilient and flexible supply chain, too.”

Smith has written “Procurement with Purpose.” He will be presenting a session at the 2022 National Procurement Institute annual conference in October—“Procurement with Purpose: How organizations can change the way they spend money NOW to protect the planet and its people.”

Sustainability advocates weigh in
Experts are quite willing to share advice to government officials on how to make their city and county purchases more sustainable. Procurement teams should buy local when possible, and actively try to reduce packaging and packaging waste, is the advice that Samantha Lindgren offers to public sector buyers and other government executives. Lindgren, an assistant professor of sustainability education in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership in the College of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, serves as a member of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) and is a group leader for its research and evaluation group.

Many people and groups seek to clean the environment, and so should local government, Lindgren explains. “Consumers are interested in reducing or eliminating single-use plastics and polystyrene, and cities and counties can commit to taking these same steps. Audits of regular purchases, including how they are packaged and shipped, can reveal patterns in buying which may point to small changes (e.g., a change in supplier or brand) that have big sustainability pay-offs.”

The sustainability conversation has been going on for some time now and the big moves governments and people need to take are clear, says Mikayla Hoskins, an associate in the cities team at Buro Happold, a multidisciplinary engineering consultancy and a global practice of consulting engineers and advisers that offers its clients expertise in structural engineering, sustainability, lighting design, mobility and other areas.

“We are seeing more and more that government is getting anxious about delivering on commitments, particularly as we get closer to 2030, 2040 and 2050—big milestone years,” Hoskins says. “Cities and counties are therefore focusing on clear implementable steps for their sustainability and climate action planning.” She says governments want to know what their specific next steps are, which ones are priorities, what they will cost and who will do it. With those questions answered, governments can then properly plan and successfully execute.

Times are changing, as producers have begun reporting on their own carbon emissions and they are making it easier for consumers to understand the emissions associated with the products they use. In addition, the corporate push behind Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) has expanded global understanding and insight into supply chains and consumption patterns, Hoskins says.

With the shift in the sustainability conversation, and with more data (such as consumption-based emission inventories) available, cities and counties can respond, Hoskins says. “It is time for cities and counties to review their own purchasing and procurement policies and processes to find ways to cut consumption and be more sustainable in their choices. It is important now for local governments to align themselves with producers and services that are leading the way with their own sustainability commitments and reporting. These entities can help cities and counties on their own journeys.”

Hoskins believes cooperative purchasing agreements can help cities-counties achieve their sustainability goals. “These agreements should definitely be seen as one of the tools in the sustainability toolbox. Cooperative purchasing can save governments time, money, and effort, and even enable the selection of solutions with greater impact than they could achieve solely.”

She explains that cooperative deals can help leverage collective buying power across a city or county. “They can be beneficial to implementing sustainable actions with the help of economies of scale. Establishing these agreements can also speed up the procurement process for local governments.”

Hoskins offers one caution: “All this being said, it is critical that cities and counties consider the scale and structure of a cooperative purchasing agreement to ensure that there is alignment on the needs, outcomes and final costs expected by each group.”

Help is on the way to enable ports to cope with supply bottlenecks, says Anne Coglianese, chief resilience officer for Jacksonville, Fla. “As the global supply chain continues experiencing constraints, we are seeing a lot of manufacturers and logistics leaders evaluate their infrastructure and operations to gauge efficiency. The Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT), for example, is Florida’s largest container port and processes more than 8 million tons of cargo each year. The port recently invested $35 million in electric cranes, ordering three new state-of-the-art environmentally friendly electric-powered cranes in addition to the three already in use.”

How can city-county officials make their governments’ purchases and their communities more sustainable? “My biggest advice is you do not need to start from scratch,” says James Patteson, principal at Blue Heron Leadership Groupand past chair of the American Public Works Association’s Center for Sustainability. “Many jurisdictions have already developed green/sustainable procurement policies and have done the hard work of verifying availability of commodities as well as the best and most effective strategies. As more communities have adopted greener purchasing policies, the market has also shifted, and is creating more opportunities.” Patteson’s group offers public works consulting services.

Patteson also urges local governments to set up a team. “The second piece of advice is to create a purchasing committee made up of procurement staff and your largest users of material—you need their buy-in and support to make the process successful, and they will also bring more ideas to the table.”

Michael Keating is senior editor for American City & County. Contact him at [email protected].

SIDEBAR: Arcadis Index ranks sustainable cities
The Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index 2022 results were recently announced. The index analyzes urban sustainability and how it is the key to unlocking prosperity in cities and improving quality of life. The new results are from the fifth edition of the index.

The 2022 index ranks 100 global cities based on 51 metrics, across 26 indicator themes. Index results are arrayed under Arcadis’ three pillars of sustainability: planet, people and profit. The following North American communities finished in the top 20 cities overall ranking in the 2022 Sustainable Cities Index: Washington, D.C.; Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; New York City; Seattle; San Francisco; and Los Angeles.

Arcadis hopes to accomplish several goals by producing the Sustainability Index, says John Batten, Arcadis’ global cities director. “Arcadis strives to improve quality of life, and the Sustainable Cities Index reflects that goal.” He adds that the index is meant to spur conversation with city leaders around ways they can benefit people, the planet and their economic outlook with an eye towards improving overall livability.”

On the subject of procurement in cities, Batten says Arcadis favors framework-style contracts which are connected to the sustainability ambitions of a city. He says Arcadis believes procurement departments in cities should expedite sustainability project assignments according to these framework agreements.

Arcadis delivers sustainable design, engineering and consulting services for natural and built assets. It works globally; it currently operates more than 350 offices across 40 countries. —MK