Sustainability and environmental considerations

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea takes seriously its responsibility in the fields of sustainability and the environment. Adhering to best practice, the Council will either apply its own environmental standards or those of its suppliers, which ever is the more advanced, when fulfilling a procurement opportunity.

Environmental considerations will be addressed at each key decision stage of the procurement process, and there is a wide range of approaches that the Council may use when contracting a procurement opportunity. These include:

specifying environmentally beneficial goods and services
considering whole of life costs when purchasing
contracting with suppliers who are concerned about their environmental performance and who are able to demonstrate policies and procedures to address environmental issues
minimising waste
using goods that have recognised environmental standards labels e.g. Forest Stewardship Council certification for timber.

The essence of sustainable purchasing is optimising the environmental and social benefits of procurement decisions in accordance with the principle of value for money. By adopting a sustainable and environmental approach to procurement, however, the Council will be able to make choices based on policy and stay in control of related expenditure and be able to judge individual procurement opportunities on their own merits.

The Council is a signatory to the Mayor of London’s Green Procurement Code intended to encourage target setting in relation to green procurement, and to the Government’s Waste Strategy 2000, which contains a commitment to require public procurement of recycled products.

For more information download and print A practical approach to greener contracts [PDF file] (File size 80 Kb)

To learn more about the Council’s longer-term environmental objectives please see the Council’s Environmental Policy Statement and strategy documents.

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