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Sustainable procurement leads to cheaper and greener cleaning services in Portugal
June 30, 2015
Sustainable procurement leads to cheaper and greener cleaning services in Portugal
LIPOR, the body responsible for managing the waste produced by eight municipalities in the Porto Metropolitan Area (Portugal), reduced costs and increased efficiency through carrying out a procurement procedure for sustainable cleaning services in 2014. Sustainability criteria were included in all stages of the process, with the contract performance clauses specifically focusing on social responsibility.
Market engagement played a major role in the procurement, which resulted in a two year contract with the service provider that met all environmental and social demands for the lowest price. The dialogue with suppliers enabled LIPOR to find out more about the current solutions available on the market, and the extent to which suppliers were willing to engage in a complex and demanding tender.
The experience is one which LIPOR aims to replicate for future contracts. The take away lessons from the procedure include the importance of setting up a goal focused team to pursue the contract and to define sustainability criteria; monitoring contract implementation every six months to ensure that the service has been carried out to plan; and involving and establishing a dialogue with suppliers right from the start.
Read more at Sustainable procurement resource centre.
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