Memorandum submitted by the Association
of Sustainable Manufacturers (ASMa)
We are a members' organisation set up in 2003
to promote sustainable manufacturing and support sustainable manufacturers.
One of our key aims is to act as the link between public sector
purchasers and individual SME members.
We are affiliated to the Environmental Industries
Federation (an established trade association for North East businesses
operating in the environmental industries), through whom we have
access to an ERDF programme to part-fund marketing services for
SME manufacturers and OEMs in the North East Objective 2 area.
Our membership includes a representative cross
section of SMEs, ranging from micro businesses set up specifically
to develop and market a single product to established OEMs who
are already selling into the public sector.
GENERAL COMMENT
The paragraph from the National Audit Office
report that was quoted in the consultation is a direct reflection
of our own and our members' experiences. To enlarge on some of
the issues it identified:
The gap between high level commitment and operational
practice. The desirability of sustainable purchasing is widely
acknowledged in local authority policy and the term "sustainability"
features prominently in external promotional material. However,
as you travel down from the policy makers and Agenda 21 team through
the management hierarchy, a different set of pressures and imperatives
visibly takes over. The gap appeared to be closing slightly in
the months following the publication of the new national public
sector procurement policy but this was nipped in the bud by Gershon.
Integrating sustainability into departmental
procurement processes. Even if it were, it would still have limited
impact on the ground unless it were backed by trained procurement
personnel who did not feel under pressure to take the safest route
all the time.
Departments are not prioritising the provision
of training on sustainable procurement. This is the missing link.
Those responsible for specification and procurement at departmental
level often freely admit they lack the knowledge to recognise
sustainability, never mind evaluate its added-value.
Departments' evaluation of sustainable procurement
activity could be more comprehensive. It certainly could—but
once again this would only have an impact if the evaluation was
carried out by people who understood what sustainability is and
was linked to sustainable procurement targets.
COMMENTS
Our remit is to support SME sustainable manufacturers/OEMs.
The following comments reflect this:
— There is an urgent need for a national
training programme that equips procurement and specifying personnel
to evaluate sustainability, build sustainability criteria into
the procurement process and create the basis for consistent national
procurement practice.
— The term "sustainability"
is used too loosely and so often that it is becoming meaningless.
Definitive national guidance, which sets out measurable criteria
that can be applied by trained personnel directly and simply to
procurement decisions, would dramatically increase the credibility
and practical relevance of the term
— Departmental procurement personnel
usually have no interest in, and no responsibility for, products
once they have been purchased. For example, there may be a strong
environmental case for replacing timber with a "plastic wood"
made from recycled materials and there may also be through-life
and end-of-life cost advantages. These are irrelevant if the capital
cost is higher.
— SMEs lack the financial resources
to invest speculatively in the development and manufacture of
innovative sustainable products and there is no public sector
market incentive whatsoever for them to invest in applying the
principles of sustainability to their existing products: If they
are already selling successfully into the public sector, why should
they fix something that is not broken? If they are not supplying
the public sector, where is the evidence to suggest that adopting
sustainability will open up the market to them?
— Procurement personnel are under such
obvious pressure to meet a range of targets that it is entirely
understandable they are not prepared to "gamble" on
unproven sustainable products from SMEs, who have no track record
for meeting delivery and quality criteria.
— We have found that there is usually
little or no liaison between local authority procurement personnel
and economic development departments, who are the natural link
with potential SME suppliers.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In summary, we believe that action in the following
areas is essential to kickstart a sustainable procurement—and
therefore sustainable manufacturing—culture that is receptive
to SME manufacturers:
1. A national training programme for procurement
personnel and specifiers so they can identify and evaluate sustainability.
2. The development of national guidance
that enables sustainability criteria to be identified and rated.
3. Proactive purchasing initiatives that
require procurement personnel to take a chance on products that
provide a demonstrably more sustainable and through life cost-competitive
alternative to existing products.
4. Local/regional initiatives based on the
national DTI-DEFRA Forward Commitment programme to both encourage
and financially enable SMEs to target public sector markets.
5. The use of independent external organisations—such
as ASMa—to act as an honest broker between procurement personnel
and individual SMEs.
19 October 2005
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