ABSTRACT
IN 2011, THE UK GOVERNMENT set out its Greening Government commitments with an intended outcome for 2014/15 to procure more sustainably and reduce supply chain impacts. The Defra ‘Action Plan for driving sustainable operations and procurement across government’ (https://archive.defra.gov.uk/sustainable/government/documents/apdriving-sustain-ops.pdf) discussed these commitments. 32 It included the following key milestones:
improve and publish data on supply chain impacts, and
embed Government Buying Standards (GBS) (www.gov.uk/government/policies/making-sustainable-development-a-part-ofall-government-policy-and-operations) (i.e. product specifications that provide minimum and best practice levels in 11 product areas) in procurement. 33
