Having trouble procuring Circular Economy products within your organisation? We show how to work within existing procurement processes to achieve more sustainable and lower cost offices. Included is a handy list of the supplier evaluation criteria that you will need for office furniture procurement.

 

Access to Circular Economy Suppliers

It would be straightforward to procure Circular Economy products if suppliers were already on frameworks. You would simply reach out to them, secure a price, compare with others, and choose the best value offering.

However, framework suppliers are only reviewed every few years and high quality remanufactured products are relatively new, so you will have to wait until the next review to have Circular Economy suppliers on your framework panel.

In the meantime, you can still procure Circular Economy solutions by:

  1. Opening up the bidding beyond your framework suppliers to those offering Circular Economy products. This will require a tender process which is usually straightforward for modest value projects (speak to your Procurement department). For large projects the tendering requirements are always more significant and inclusive – so no more work is required.

2. Setting evaluation criteria that support Circular Economy solutions. Evaluation criteria are the responsibility of the end user, so this is fully in your control.

From our many projects with forward-thinking organisations, we have compiled a list, below, of best practice evaluation criteria which you may like to incorporate in support of Circular Economy office furniture procurement.

 

Circular Economy Furniture Evaluation Criteria

Existing Furniture

Detail in your proposal how you intend to manage unwanted existing furniture to achieve the highest value in the waste hierarchy (i.e. reuse, repair, remanufacture, recycle, waste to energy, landfill)

Include in your price the cost of disposal of existing furniture that will not be reused because we need to assess the true full cost of this project.

Landfill Minimisation

How do you minimise the amount of office furniture going to landfill in the UK?

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Minimisation

What are the embodied greenhouse gas emissions in the furniture that you will supply compared to furniture made from virgin resources?

Remanufactured Furniture

What percentage of the furniture will be remanufactured? Remanufactured furniture is preferred due to the associated cost and environmental benefits, as well as the UK Government’s 5% target for reused and refurbished furniture.

BREEAM and LEED credits

Explain how the furniture that you provide will  enable us to score BREEAM and LEED credits

End-of-life Management

What will you do with the furniture when it is no longer required or no longer serviceable? How will this minimise removal and disposal costs?

Social Value

In context of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, describe how you ensure wider social, economic, environmental and cultural benefits.  Please refer only to examples from past projects.

Opportunities for Disadvantaged People

How will your organisation and the award of this contract provide opportunities for disadvantaged people? This can include but is not limited to:

        • Employment opportunities for those who are long term unemployed (unemployed for a year or longer)
        • Employment opportunities for rehabilitating young offenders (18-24)
        • Employment opportunities for those who are not in employment, education, or training (NEETs)
        • Employment opportunities created for people with disabilities

Provide statistics related to the above from past projects to demonstrate your past history on this topic.

UK Jobs

How does your furniture contribute to employment in the UK? Please provide an indicative estimate of the percentage of the cost of your furniture which goes to UK-based labour.

National Balance of Payments

Provide an indicative percentage of the cost of your furniture that flows out of the UK through purchase of fully assembled items, components and raw materials.

How much of your furniture was manufactured outside of the UK? Note that local assembly of overseas-made components does not count as UK manufacturing.

Local Benefits

How will your company and the award of future contracts benefit communities in the local* area to project?

SME Benefits

How do you intend to involve local* SME’s in the provision of furniture under future contracts?

Social Enterprise Benefits

How do you intend to involve social enterprises in the provision of furniture?

 

*We suggest using the definition of ‘local’ cited in the TOM Social Value Calculator: “A definition of local area must be specified here, depending on the context. For contracts for a Local Authority the local area is defined by the Local Authority boundaries. For other contracts where the relevant economic, social and environmental geography spans more than one Local Authority, multiple adjacent Local Authorities could be specified. Alternatively a 10-20-30 mile radius from the project’s centre can be specified (e.g. in the case of a construction project). When a mile radius is specified, the first 3 digits of the post code for the residence of the local people employed must be collected as evidence. To download localised figures go to: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/articles/980.aspx

 

Rype Office is a Circular Economy office furniture provider committed to transforming the office furniture industry. We welcome conversations about more sustainable tender evaluation criteria. Call us on 033 3358 3330 or email contact@rypeoffice.com.