What I learnt this week…
I did four workshops this week, three on Wednesday to help businesses get ready for the green procurement aspects of tenders on behalf of Compete North East and one on Thursday to a third sector/not for profit audience. A further three procurement workshops on Teesside on Tuesday were cancelled due to the weather and will be rescheduled for January/February.
I love the interaction of workshops and I always pick up some nuggets – here’s a summary:
- Many buyers are now allocating up to 15% of their tender assessment scores to environment & sustainability issues;
- Everybody is being impacted more and more by tender/customer requirements;
- Many tenders are now asking you not only to tackle your performance, but that of your supply chain;
- There is a shift in the responses to tenders from “we will…” to “we have…”;
- Third sector organisations are increasingly finding they have to up their game to compete – a surprising proportion of the attendees on Wednesday were from the third sector – we had a community stables and an addiction treatment charity amongst many others;
- Surprisingly perhaps, as they are value-driven organisations, many third sector organisations are way behind the curve;
- Smaller organisations are looking for very practical tips (I copied many of the organisations a copy of 101 Carbon-busting tips);
- Generally cynicism and fatalism are being replaced by pragmatism and enthusiasm.
The feedback from both was very positive. Attendees left the policy workshops with a draft policy and a practical action plan looking happier than if I’d given them all a piece of Xmas cake. I’ll let you know when the other policy workshops are rescheduled.
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