Brighton and Hove City Council procured the services of ‘The Bike’s The Business’ after a six month trial period. With no alternative providers available the Council were able to waive the requirement to put the contract for this service out to tender under their Contract Standing Orders.

Procuring ‘The Bike’s The Business’ services has helped assist the Council in reaching the National Procurement Strategy objectives which all councils were expected to achieve by 2006. These objectives included realising economic, social and environmental benefits for their communities through their procurement activities; and operating a mixed economy of service provision including small firms.

‘The Bike’s The Business’ was able to expand after securing the Council contract, taking on 6 additional contracts. Brighton and Hove’s procurement of the service therefore not only helped reduce the CO2 emissions of the Council, but has also supported the development of a small, local, low carbon business.

Bristol City Council

Increasing recycled content in construction projects

Bristol City Council was the first Building Schools for the Future project to reach financial close.   The project to build four new schools was worth around £120 million and the Council was keen to push for higher levels of recycled content as a demonstration of sustainable construction.   However, before including requirements within its Invitation to Negotiate (ITN), the Council wanted to confirm that it was practical and affordable.

To provide such evidence, WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) commissioned market research into building products and discounted prices in the local area.   The results showed that for more than half the materials used in a secondary school, alternative cost-competitive mainstream brands could be sourced with above average recycled content.   Analysis of three secondary school designs showed that total recycled content in excess of 15% could be achieved at no extra cost.   With such results, Bristol City Council included a minimum requirement in their ITN.

Skanska won the contract to build the four schools for Bristol City Council.   Company Environmental Manager, Matthew Janssen, commented: "It's a lot easier than people expect to substantially increase the level of recycled content in a build project.   There is a great selection of products on the market that offer an above average level of recycled content at a similar cost and quality to more traditional choices.   We are now setting our own recycled content target throughout the Integrated Projects division of Skanska."

The Council's PFI Project Manager Chris Wiseman commented: "Market research identified a range of mainstream construction products offering above-average recycled content at competitive prices.   As a result, we had the confidence to set a requirement in our tender specification for 10% recycled content for the project as a whole without prejudicing our budget.   This is important in helping the Council and its schools 'walk the talk' on sustainable development."

Based on this and other evidence, Partnership for Schools has included a minimum 10% requirement for recycled content in the model procurement documentation for the Building Schools for the Future programme.   Several local authorities have already adopted this good practice - which should lead to contractors using several thousand more tonnes of recovered material per school that might otherwise go to landfill.

Source: Bristol City Council/WRAP

Gateshead Council won the Energy Saving Trust’s ‘Fleet Hero Award’in 2006, recognising a drive towards sustainable development by the transport department. The Council were rewarded for introducing 20% bio-fuel to a tenth of all their vehicles. They also trained drivers in fuel efficiency and allocated them jobs closer to their homes – a trial which saved £77k in the first year.

The council had initially started to convert its fleet to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), but found that the costs incurred (an average of £2,500 per vehicle) undermined the potential savings. Increasing the percentage of bio-fuel, however, incurs no additional costs and has no adverse affect on performance. The Gateshead fleet was even tested at minus 17 C.

“Since Kyoto, the transport department have been thinking ‘what can we do?’” said Graham Telfer, Fleet Manager for the Council: “The goal behind the project was to reduce our CO2 emissions, but we had to make sure it wasn’t going to be at a cost to the tax payer.”

Telfer points out that bio-fuel is subsidised by central government to make it as cheap as regular diesel. The project as a whole increases mileage by 2-3% and this success has meant that all vehicles in Gateshead's 400 strong fleet are now to be operated on 20% bio-fuel.

Longma Biofuels make bio-diesel from vegetable oil collected from local catering firms within Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, and Monmouthshire. Bio-diesel not only makes use of a local waste but helps the Marches to meet its CO2 reduction budget for Transport and helps to promote community engagement.
We collect used oil from local catering establishments, modify it and sell fuel to diesel vehicle owners. In theory compression ignition engines can burn a wide variety of fuels, including coal dust, lard and butane, and vegetable oils need little chemical processing to work in diesel engines. Indeed, Rudolph Diesel built his prototype engine in 1890 to run on peanut oil. Later, the oil majors used the engine to rid themselves of a by-product of refining petrol, and called it “diesel”. In practice some fuel technology is required to ensure high efficiency and reliability under a wide range of conditions.

Our business addresses global warming by providing a commercially viable method of powering vehicles that makes no contribution to greenhouse gases. The CO2 that is released from our fuel is wholly derived from non-fossil, plant material, and as such provides a closed loop process that does not increase the atmospheric CO2. While waste fats can only replace 1% of the DERV market, this is a significant and easily achievable step that will also change attitudes with respect to our reliance on fossil energy.

A secondary environmental benefit is that we mitigate an existing waste disposal problem. If fats are allowed to decompose naturally they produce methane, a much stronger greenhouse gas than CO2.

Cornwall is ring fencing £890,685 for sustainable energy projects within it’s LAA. £110,000 from Central Government as part of it’s pump priming money within it’s LAA and £780,685 LPSA reward grant from Cornwall County Council. The money will be used by to CSEP to deliver a sustainable energy outcome in Cornwall’s 2006-2009 LAA. CSEP is a local cross-sector partnership of 72 organisations committed to creating a sustainable energy future for Cornwall.
 
The county’s energy economy suffers from being on the periphery of the national grid. In 2005, the china clay company Imerys drastically reduced its operations in the area because of escalating energy costs, axing 800 jobs in the process. Some 98% of Cornwall’s £579m energy bill leaves the local economy to pay for energy created elsewhere. The county has some of the worst fuel poverty levels in the UK.

CSEP will use the LAA and LPSA grants to improve domestic insulation levels, particularly in the most vulnerable homes, and to increase take up of micro-renewables in domestic and community buildings. Sian Hedger, Deputy Group Accountant at the council, recognises the financial potential: “We [Cornwall] have the highest levels of solar gain in the UK and the second highest wave resources. The LAA funding helps us capture some of these resources and develop a stronger, more sustainable economy.”
 
There has been a phenomenal local response to these initiatives - the programme has already achieved free insulation to 757 homes and 119 (evidenced) micro-renewable installations since April 2006. The LAA places Cornwall firmly at the forefront of the burgeoning UK renewable energy market, attracting employers and investment, whilst engaging in the national drive to cut carbon emissions.

Bristol City Council

Sustainable food procurement

A meet the buyer event was organised by the Soil Association, Organic Networks and Bristol City Council. The event linked local growers and producers with the council and the council's current distributors/ suppliers in order to establish links and to help local suppliers to supply the council with food. There was a chance for an informal information exchange as well as formalised discussions about the requirements of the council and the needs of local producers.

The ability of the producers to meet the requirements of the council and the council's ability to enhance the regional and local economy through its procurement was also discussed. There were tasting sessions and presentations. The event gave sellers a valuable opportunity to meet people who could expand their distribution network while buyers could taste the food and experience the high quality.

Benefits

• Networking and information exchange.
• A clearer understanding from both the suppliers and purchases of what is achievable and what is required.
• Contract Services Catering now purchase large bottles of local, organic milk from Manor Farm. The milk is served to pupils in reusable plastic beakers which are better for the environment than individual packaging.

Lessons learned during implementation

It is important to ensure that everyone understands the main pressures of running a catering service and those of producing and growing food and providing food services. This will help a greater understanding between producer and provider and will ease communications and facilitate greater achievements.

Future developments

The possibility of using more local, organic suppliers for fruit and vegetables has been examined. However, there is currently a supply/price problem. It is hoped that this will be alleviated in the near future.

A selection process is currently underway in order to identify a group of pilot schools for the introduction of more local and organic food. Once the pilot scheme is established it is hoped that more schools will be able to be introduced to the scheme and the amount of local and organic food that is purchased and supplied will be increased even further.

Source: Bristol City Council/DEFRA

Wakefield Council

Supplier engagement for community benefits

In 2004 Wakefield Council established a new corporate procurement team. It had a remit to develop a strategic approach to procurement and directly contribute to the Council’s community strategy priority of developing a dynamic local economy.

Following a series of workshops on ‘Winning Council Business’ for regional companies during January to March 2004 (undertaken as part of the West Yorkshire Procurement Partnership), feedback from companies was that Wakefield Council was difficult to do business with.

An analysis of the creditors system identified that in 2003-04, only 40% of approximately £135million spend went to a regional postcode. Comparative information from other large authorities suggested that the norm would be 50% to 60% spent regionally.

In April 2004 the Council’s cabinet approved a programme of activity to improve the Council’s engagement with local and regional businesses, and set a target to increase spend in the regional economy by 10% over two years.

A strategic approach to supplier engagement was taken in order to improve communications between the council and businesses from all sectors, to identify and breakdown the barriers and to instil confidence in the way in which the Council procures goods and services.

Key issues in delivering the target were to ensure compliance with procurement legislation and to maintain value for money.

The target was exceeded; by March 2006 the proportion of regional spend had increased from 40% to 52%. In monetary terms, this is an increase of £63 million in the region, of which £34 million went into the Wakefield district with resulting positive impact on the local economy.

Source: Wakefield District Council