Oxford Procurement of Government Outcomes (POGO) November Call
For this session, we discussed how public procurement can be strategically used to pursue green policies.
The Procurement of Government Outcomes (POGO) Club is a knowledge sharing initiative that is open to anyone interested in capacity building in public procurement and in collaboration to improve social outcomes. We host monthly calls, maintain a maillist, and share other resources. Participants come from many different disciplines, sectors, and countries. Our chair is Anne Davies, Professor of Law and Public Policy.
Interested? Sign up to our new POGO working groups here & join the mailing list by emailing Ruairi Macdonald. Find us on LinkedIn here.
Session overview
How can government contracts be leveraged to improve environmental outcomes?
In this month’s Oxford Procurement of Government Outcomes (POGO) Club session, we looked at how green policies and environmental outcomes are being embedded in government contracts through public procurement.
Millions of carbon tonnes are produced every year during delivery of government contracts. Public procurement is increasingly being used by governments as a strategic tool to achieve broad economic, social and environmental goals beyond the core requirements of a purchase. For example, the UK government has recently issued Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 06/21: Taking account of Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major government contracts.
For this session, we invited Peter Smith, co-author of the book Procurement with Purpose, to share his insights on how public procurement can be leveraged to achieve additional environmental goals. Elizabeth Forster and Kate Gough introduced theimplication of PPN 06/21 for government and suppliers. Ian Makgill from the Spend Network presented a new open data tool to help governments prioritise contracts for carbon reduction and when. We were also be joined by Professor Fredo Schotanus, from the Centre for Public Procurement (UUCePP) Utrecht University, who introduced a call for papers for a special issue of the Sustainability journal titled: 'The new era of sustainable public procurement'.
Resources
- Cabinet Office (2021). Procurement Policy Note 06/21: Taking account of Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major government contracts
- Peter Smith and Mark Perera (2021). Procurement With Purpose: How Organisations can change the way the spend money NOW to protect the planet and its people
- Elizabeth Forster and Kate Gough (2021). Decarbonising the Government supply chain: Net Zero targets for bidders for major government contracts
- Spend Network, Contracting Emissions Dashboard
- Call for papers ‘The new era of sustainable public procurement’, Special issue for the journal Sustainability
- Local Government Association (2021). Sustainable procurement: Delivering local economic, social and environmental priorities: A toolkit for commissioners, procurement practitioners and contract managers
Oxford POGO November Call Agenda
16:00-16:05 Welcome by Chair Professor Anne Davies, University of Oxford
16:05-16:50 How can government contracts be leveraged to improve environmental outcomes?
Prompt for Presentations and Discussion:
- How can public procurement be strategically used to achieve environmental goals beyond the core requirements of the purchase?
- What are the promises and potential pitfalls of ‘Procurement Policy Note 06/21’?
- What data is needed to understand the quantity of carbon in government supply chains? How can this data be used to prioritise governments contracts for carbon reduction and when?
- What is meant by carbon net zero? How might differing methodological approaches to count carbon emissions impact organisations pledges of net zero?
Discussion Panel
- Peter Smith (🐤 @gpetersmith), author: Procurement With Purpose: How Organisations can change the way the spend money NOW to protect the planet and its people (2021) and Bad Buying How organisations waste billions through failures, frauds and f*ck-ups (2020)
- Elizabeth Forster, Associate and Kate Gough, Counsel, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (🐤 @Freshfields), Decarbonising the Government supply chain: Net Zero targets for bidders for major government contracts
- Maria Marinari, DPhil Candidate, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford
- Ian Makgill, Spend Network (🐤 @ianmakgill, @SpendNetwork), Spend Network, Contracting Emissions Dashboard
- Professor Fredo Schotanus, Utrecht University Centre for Public Procurement, Call for papers ‘The new era of sustainable public procurement’
Response to Discussion Panel
16:30-16:55 Q&A/Open Group Discussion
16:55 End of year survey
We would greatly appreciate it if you are able to spare 10-15mins to complete this anonymous questionnaire about the Oxford POGO Club. This questionnaire will take stock of your Oxford POGO experience over the last 12 months and ask for your input on what topics and outputs the network delivers in 2022.
17:00 Meeting closed by Chair
The next monthly Oxford POGO call will be January 25th 2022 4-5pm GMT.