Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
brands for workstations comply with the norms
of the Energy Star Label and so compliance to
this norm is not really a distinguishing criterion.
Therefore, government organizations often
take things a step further. The Fontys University
and the City of Amsterdam usually ask the sup-
plying organization questions such as:
clear participation of employees, who also
view sustainability as a normal component
of operational management.
Should one next examine whether organiza-
tions are set up for giving the sustainability aspect
attention when procuring, one then has to discuss
the set-up of the organization, the reportage on
the progress of the procurement strategy regard-
ing sustainability and the way one cooperates
with third parties.
In our research, the support for sustainability
from the top in each of the studied organizations
was investigated. The City of Amsterdam and the
Dutch Tax Authorities both have policy plans in
this field. At the municipality and the Rabo Bank,
the organization is clearly set up to give attention
to sustainability. The topic is dealt with starting
from the top of both organisations. At every level
of the organization, managers pay attention to
sustainability topics and have to comply with
key performance indicators. At the municipality,
procurement regarding ICT is taken care of by a
team consisting of staff of the ICT department, the
environmental department and the procurement
department. The Rabo Bank has a corporate social
responsibility directorate, which directly reports
to the Executive Board. Furthermore, each part
of this bank has to periodically report on energy
consumption.
However, in many organizations, the organiza-
tion surrounding sustainability is still in its infancy.
The Tax Authorities have a policy advisor who has
sustainability in his portfolio. Internal reportage on
the sustainability aspect is sub optimal in most of
the studied organizations. Collaboration between
organizations regarding sustainability as it turns
out, is slowly starting to gain speed.
In this, the central government is ahead of the
other authorities and the latter in turn are ahead
of the educational institutes.
what would you advise with regard to the
sustainability of the workstation?
which social return could you offer our or-
ganization (e.g. work placements, employ-
ment, education opportunities)
Next, these organizations include the answers
to these questions in a ratio, which is indicated in
advance in their decision making. Both the City
of Amsterdam, as well as the Fontys University
of Applied Sciences indicates that in 2009, price/
performance ratios are given priority over sus-
tainability. Besides, they state it is impossible to
include in the assessment of quotations, whether
a product or service is realized in a socially re-
sponsible manner. The reason is that European
procurement criteria, which governments legally
have to use, prohibit inclusion of the manufactur-
ing method in the buying decision.
Organizing Procurement for
using it as a Strategy Tool
Counotte (2009) remarks that in order to achieve
that procurement of provisions is used as a tool
for operating more sustainably; there should be
a clear strategy from the top of the organization.
In that case there has to be:
a strategic interest in choosing sustainability
sufficient internal expertise available with-
in the organization
a certain openness in the organization re-
garding external contributions;
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