Sustainability Quick Wins and Greenticks
What are Quick Wins?
Operational sustainability and corporate responsibility are now top priorities for every public sector organisation - none more so than central government departments and their agencies, since the Government set sustainability targets for SOGE* (Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate).
The Buy Sustainable - Quick Wins* are a set of minimum environmental standards to which commonly-purchased products must conform. They cover a range of goods including IT equipment, white goods, paper and construction materials and relate to characteristics such as energy consumption, recycled content and biodegradability. Each standard has two levels - a lower mandatory standard, and a more stretching ‘best practice' standard.
The Quick Wins are mandatory for central government and form part of the recommendations from the Government's Sustainable Procurement Action Plan (SPAP)* published in 2007 and the SOGE targets.
In addition to the Quick Wins, the Energy Services Directive* requires that all public sector bodies lead the way in energy efficiency. Voluntary agreements are being finalised between Defra and central government, local government and the health and education sectors, making commitments to buy energy using products and vehicles above the minimum standard set out in the Buy Sustainable - Quick Wins.
What are Greenticks?
Greenticks is a new facility on the Buying Solutions website, which will make it easier for customers to identify and buy Quick Win compliant products:
A Greentick next to a product indicates that it meets the minimum mandatory standard.
A Greentick-plus next to a product indicates that it meets the higher voluntary Best Practice standard.
A Greentick next to a product is the supplier's assurance that this product meets the specification set out by the Defra Buy Sustainable - Quick Wins.
Starting from January 2009, suppliers are beginning to upload greentick information for their products into the Buying Solutions online catalogue.
Buying Solutions has provided this function for suppliers to assist customers' buying decisions, and does not verify the correctness of each and every Greentick. We therefore cannot accept responsibility for products wrongly labelled by suppliers.
*Buying Solutions is neither responsible for the content or reliability of these web pages or has no control over their availability.
