The Task

To align themselves with the ISO 20400 standard for Sustainable Procurement, GWR needed to identify where the gaps lay in the process, policy, and enablers to develop and make those areas more robust to enable a sustainable supply chain and process. Action Sustainability’s assessment and subsequent report’s findings and recommendations will help GWR take their procurement to even higher levels of sustainability.

The Action

Action Sustainability undertook a desktop review of documents and conducted an ISO 20400 gap analysis workshop with key stakeholders from GWR and produced a report based on the findings and put forth recommendations for areas of improvement.

The first phase of the evaluation involved reviewing GWR’s supporting documentation such as policies, strategies, job descriptions and tender assessment documents. The second part of our process involved a workshop with key people from GWR’s business, at different levels and in different roles, all with an influence on spend. The interactive and engaging workshop was based on the key elements of the ISO 20400 standard – Fundamentals, Policy & Strategy, Enablers and Process. Through our discussions, we were able to explore how effectively sustainability objectives are actually deployed through their procurement processes.

The Outcome

The analysis provided a confidence that GWR are doing lots of good work in sustainability and sustainable procurement already. GWR’s approach to sustainable procurement was assessed as being ‘established’. The evaluation results gave GWR an action plan of activities to do, the timescales and complexity in carrying them out to reach their sustainability goals. The recommendations will bring about further upskilling of staff competence in the realm of sustainability, alignment of the procurement process with organisational goals, sustainable and innovative solutions, cost saving through challenging the need, better supply chain relationships through supplier relationship and contract management. The ISO 20400 Standard is an ideal platform to use to assess and then improve your procurement, supply chain management and sustainability outcomes.