Procurement Needs a Sustainability Mindset

Wales has strong policy foundations for long-term thinking through the Well-being of Future Generations Act, but the way we apply those principles in procurement is still uneven. The policies are excellent, yet full adoption remains some way off. For procurement professionals, this is an opportunity rather than a barrier.

Designing supply chains through a Design for Planet lens can strengthen local economies, reduce carbon and bring the intentions of the Act much closer to everyday practice.

For me, the Act aligns naturally with sustainable supply chain design. When you look at the long-term, preventative and collaborative ways of working, and then apply them to the technology and suppliers we rely on, the benefits reach far into the future. It is essentially a “buy now, don’t pay later” principle. The challenge is that organisations do not always start their procurement thinking with the Act in mind. Building that lens into the earliest stages of design is where progress can accelerate.

The scale of public spending in Wales means the opportunity is significant. The Welsh public sector spends more than £8 billion pounds a year, and there are around 280,000 suppliers registered in Wales. Mapping demand to Welsh supplier capability, and making those connections early, could support local economic growth and reduce the embodied carbon associated with long supply chains. This is not about excluding anyone; Wales operates across four procurement regimes, and none of them precludes the use of local suppliers. In some areas, such as health services, sourcing far afield simply wouldn’t make sense.

A common issue is that supply chain visibility rarely goes beyond the Tier 1 contractor. Once the Tier 1 is appointed, the rest of the supply chain is left to flow from there. But when you look further down to Tiers 2, 3 and 4, you often find suppliers with the capability, local workforce and lower carbon footprint to contribute meaningfully to Welsh projects.

Sometimes they need support or a chance to adapt, but the potential exists. We have seen this in areas such as floating offshore wind, food and housing, where working directly with suppliers rather than solely through the Tier 1 allows us to understand upstream materials, offer visibility of demand and build supply chains that reflect policy ambitions.

The same principles have been applied internationally. We have taken the Well-being of Future Generations Act into our work overseas, including in the UAE, where we were asked to look at one of their most carbon-intensive supply chains. That led to the world’s first construction digital passport. By scanning the barcode on a product, users can see where it was melted, poured, manufactured and installed. That information feeds directly into the Building Information Model, creating full provenance and a true carbon count. It is now written into law there, and the architecture can be adapted to other products. It shows what is possible when transparency is built in from the start.

Digital visibility is central to sustainable procurement. Without it, many organisations would struggle to pass a resilience test on carbon, sourcing risk or product safety. When visibility is built into the procurement model, everything becomes clearer: where each product comes from, which materials carry higher carbon, and where supply chains can be brought closer to home. That transparency can also inform future procurement decisions, enabling public bodies to adjust their sourcing on later projects.

Culture and behaviour in procurement will need to evolve alongside the regulations. Wales has moved from awarding the “most economically advantageous tender” to the “most advantageous tender”. Removing the E of “economically” means tenders can no longer be awarded on price alone, yet evaluation weightings do not always reflect that shift. If a tender is still 80% price and 20% quality, then sustainability, which is often only a small part of the quality score, has limited impact.

There is a strong case for bringing sustainability directly into the financial assessment rather than treating it as an add-on. Reduced carbon has an economic value. Local employment has an economic value. If these are built into the financial criteria, procurement teams can award contracts that deliver real long-term value and give local, low-carbon suppliers a fairer chance.

Sustainable procurement is not just about greener materials. It is about protecting citizens from volatile supply chains, reducing exposure to high-carbon costs and ensuring the products used in public projects are safe and traceable. With the tools, data and regulations already available, Wales has everything it needs to design supply chains that support both economic resilience and environmental responsibility.

Simon Griffiths talks about this and more in the Government and Not for Profit podcast episode Design for Planet. Listen here.