2.76 Sustainable Procurement

There is an increasing community expectation to support sustainable products and practices through the billions spent by government and industry in their commercial operations. It is challenging to be able to identify the products or services that genuinely support sustainable development goals, achieve the targeted outcomes and concurrently represent value-for-money in achieving those goals. Sustainable procurement involves a high degree of collaboration and engagement between all parties in a supply chain, which needs to be monitored to track the achievement of sustainability outcomes. This industry-driven research project will respond to identified industry challenges by examining key issues across the procurement life cycle (i.e., planning, sourcing, and contract management) to improve environmental, social and economic sustainability outcomes in the housing, building and infrastructure sectors in Australia.

Objectives

The key focus areas include:

1. To examine the role of clients, stakeholders and suppliers in transforming industry practices in procurement for sustainability in the housing, building and infrastructure sectors;
2. To identify the value of sustainable procurement to meet organisational targets, across environmental, social, economic and governance dimensions;
3. To examine the specific post COVID-19 impacts for achieving sustainable procurement and how these impacts may be ameliorated;
4. To propose a sustainable procurement framework which integrates organisational targets, sustainability value tracking, existing technologies such as Building Information Modelling/Digital Engineering, industry rating tools, policies/ guidelines/ processes and supply chain engagement into procurement life cycle; and
5. To demonstrate the application of the proposed sustainable procurement framework by conducting case studies in selected sustainability themes such as green concrete, recycled content (beyond concrete material), Modern Slavery Act, regional participation, and marginalised groups.

Industry Outcomes

The key industry outcomes include;

1. A systematic study of key issues across the procurement life cycle to improve sustainability outcomes in the housing, building and infrastructure sectors in Australia;
2. An approach to identify and define the value of sustainable procurement to meet organisational targets, across environmental, social, economic and governance dimensions;
3. A sustainable procurement framework for clients that recognizes the role of stakeholders, organisational targets, sustainability value tracking, existing technologies and rating tools, supply chain engagement and procurement life cycle; and
4. A guide for sustainable procurement for clients that defines best practice for monitoring, managing and improving sustainability outcomes within supply chains offer tools, approaches and case studies to assist in implementing the processes recommended.