Approaches to sustainable procurement - Waitakere City
Council
Vehicle Life Cycle Costing Tool
Better building code
Waitakere City Council developed the Better Building Code in 2000 to assist in the development of environmentally preferable public buildings. The Better Building Code provides an overview of sustainability initiatives to be taken into consideration for new building projects. The code was adopted by council as the basis for all new council facilities.
The comprehensive publication provides standard clauses for tendering and briefing documents for the design and construction of public buildings. Additionally it contains guidelines for sound project planning and management for the maintenance of existing buildings.
Information and standard clauses for tendering and briefing are provided for the concept design, detailed design, and construction stages. Importantly, after each specification the booklet outlines the reasons, possible solutions, cost implications, and where to go for further information. Background information is also provided for environmentally preferable retrofits and maintenance of existing buildings.
The Better Building Code is structured to allow users, both council and the community, to mix and match clauses and guidelines depending on their needs and priorities. For this reason the guide is presented in electronic form, as well as a hard-copy booklet, to allow users to edit clauses if needed and to cut and paste them into tendering and briefing documents.
For a copy of the Better Building Code, see the Council's Building Sustainably page.
Waitakere City Council has also developed on-line Sustainable Home Guidelines, found at the above link, providing the community with a practical guide for good practice eco-building with up to date information about energy, water, materials, safety and waste. A focus of the information is to assist residents to save money on energy and water bills, design a safer and healthier place to live and achieve council's eco-city vision.
Eco-Council guidelines
Waitakere has developed Eco-Council Guidelines for environmentally preferable purchasing and has incorporated these into the existing procurement manual. These guidelines set out council's environmental purchasing goals. The guidelines state that "all purchases should be assessed as to environmental impact, in all aspects of their production and delivery". They also state that council should require suppliers to "adhere to production practices that have a minimal impact on the environment".
A series of Eco-Council purchasing principles outlines to staff the possible environmental impacts of products and suppliers that should be encouraged/ discouraged. These include:
- product toxicity,
- energy efficiency,
- water efficiency/ conservation,
- waste minimisation and recycling,
- encouraging cleaner production principles, and
- greening the supply chain.
The life cycle cost to council, including the purchase, operation and disposal, is also factored into the purchasing decision.
The Eco-Council Guidelines also list banned products that are not to be purchased due to their high environmental impact. These include bans on:
- non-sustainable timber,
- using CFC's,
- petrol vehicles (not run on unleaded fuel or re-refined oil),
- fire extinguishers using halons,
- batteries with mercury, and
- products or services produced in countries that disadvantage human endeavour.
Council is currently looking to develop a page on the Waitakere City Council website to house the guidelines as well as practical tools to assist environmentally preferable purchasing.
Vehicle life cycle costing tool
Council uses full life cycle costing to purchase fleet vehicles, rather than a comparison of up-front cost. A spreadsheet tool assists staff in this process through the input of the purchase cost, associated costs incurred in operation of the vehicle in council and the residual value that the vehicle will be sold for. Vehicles that consume less petrol, such as hybrids, LPG vehicles, or more energy efficient smaller engine cars, in many cases will prove cheaper to council over their life cycle. Issues such as safety and fit for purpose are also taken into consideration.
Council is currently undertaking a Fleet Check Audit to assess the sustainability of the fleet and to assist future vehicle purchases. The audit incorporates environmental issues such as the fuel efficiency, air emissions, vehicle usage and other impacts between vehicles currently in the fleet and the alternatives. The outcome will be an action plan to improve the sustainability of the vehicle fleet through incorporation of sustainability into the vehicle tendering process. This will include assessing the information that is currently publicly available by vehicle manufacturers and the information that there will be a need to specify for.
Preferred suppliers list
Council's Preferred Suppliers List is located on council's Intranet for staff to access pre-approved suppliers to council. The list identifies both local companies to support the "Buy Waitakere" policy and printing companies that comply with the environmental guidelines. This is currently indicated through ticks for the relevant suppliers that are located in Waitakere City Council and/or printing companies that meet council's guidelines. Council aims to work with suppliers of other products in the future to gradually increase the amount of information provided to staff on the preferred suppliers list.
