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Sustainable farming & food

Public sector food procurement initiative

• Tools and guidance
• Raising awareness
• Case studies
• Fair trade
• Health and nutrition
• School food
• Regions
• Selling to primary suppliers
• Selling to the public sector
• Environmental performance
• Sustainable farming

Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative (PSFPI)

Sustainable procurement:
General guidance relevant to the PSFPI

Key documents

• DTI - Supply Chain Management PDF
  Guidance on how supply chain management works
• Buy green and make a difference – how to address environmental issues in public procurement PDF
  OGC have produced the publication to help procurers, internal clients, decision makers, suppliers and others involved in public procurement to help safeguard the environment. Links to more detailed guidance are provided throughout the document.
• Environmental issues in purchasing - joint note from Treasury and Defra PDF
  This guide is designed primarily for Government Departments and their agencies, but will also be useful to other public sector purchasers such as Local Authorities, particularly on the EC procurement rules.
• MTP's Specification database
  Practical advice produced by the Market Transformation Programme for buying a range of good value products that are resource-efficient and do less harm to the environment.
• Aggregation - is bigger always better? PDF
  This OGC guide can help public bodies achieve greater aggregation in keeping with recommendations in the NAO's report on smarter food procurement - see www.defra.gov.uk/farm/policy/sustain/procurement/nao-smarterfood.htm. It aims to clarify what is meant by the term ‘aggregation’; identifies the possible advantages and disadvantages associated with it; and discusses the key issues that will inform the decision-making process.
• Smaller Supplier - better value PDF
  This OGC guide is designed to help buyers achieve efficiency in public procurement while improving the diversity of their supplier base by removing barriers to small businesses.
• Advice of Office of Government Commerce’s on social issues in public procurement
• Buy and make a difference – how to address social issues in public procurement PDF
  OGC publication that draws on real-life examples to show public procurers how they can help address social concerns both in what they buy and in the way they should expect suppliers to cater for social needs.

Key documents - non Government

• Public Sector Sustainable Procurement Assessment Tool
  The tool is designed by Forum for the Future and the Welsh Procurement Initiative to help organisations undertake an initial evaluation on their sustainable procurement - i.e. where they are now? - and to measure progress.

EU documents (on the Europa website)

• Green Public Procurement
• EC interpretative document on social issues in public procurement PDF
• Guide for using EU Ecolabels in public procurement PDF

Other links

• Advisory Committee on Consumer Products and the Environment
• OGC Procurement Site
  Useful one-stop-shop dealing with all aspects of procurement.
• Regional Centres of Expertise on Procurement
  Support for local authorities in implementing good procurement practice
• Other useful OGC publications
  

Further information

• PSFPI - other useful publications and sources (PDF 80 KB)

Further information is available on our Help page about downloading or reading Adobe Acrobat PDF documents.

Page last modified: 26 February 2009
Page published: 5 April 2005

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