24th of October is the date to celebrate UN. Thats a good reason for highlighting the new UNDP Sustainable Procurement Policy. UNDP is committed to sustainable procurement and will maximize environmental, social and economic considerations in the procurement process whenever and wherever possible. This is great news to Solvatten and other providers of clean tech and sustainable solutions.
General Principles
Sustainable procurement is consistent with the United Nations and UNDP’s general procurement principles:
a) B est value for money: The selection of offers which presents the optimum combination of factors such as appropriate quality, life-cycle costs and other parameters. Environmental and social considerations can be included among these parameters. Furthermore, reduce energy and resource consumptionthroughout the life-cycle results in greater efficiencies and long-term cost savings.
b) Fairness, integrity and transparency: These principles are guaranteed through the incorporation of sustainability criteria at the early stages of the procurement process. Sustainable procurement also helps reduce reputational risk and helps uphold UNDP’s emphasis on integrity and responsibility.
c) Effective international competition: To support effective competition, sustainable procurement must be implemented progressively and in full respect of the right of access to the United Nations market for suppliers from developing countries and countries with economies in transition.
d) The best interests of UNDP: Sustainable procurement is clearly in the best interest of UNDP as it supports the alignment of procurement to the core mission of sustainable development.