ZWS Circular economy support programme

Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) has reported on the challenges and benefits of building a circular economy, to businesses, communities and to the climate. The report reviews real life cases of barriers to and enablers of progress, as experienced through the ZWS Circular Economy Support Programme, and provides valuable insight to inform future programme planning. 

ZWS’s procurement work to date has focused on upskilling public and private sector procurement professionals, by raising awareness of sustainable alternatives and enabling measures to embed these into procurement practice. 

SPL has worked alongside ZWS to support the development of procurement frameworks and contracts and provide support streams referenced in the report, such as:

• Training: A focus on training procurement professionals from 2014 to 2016 led to more than 700 individuals being trained on the international Marrakech standards for sustainable procurement, and almost 400 people completing an e-learning module co-delivered with the Scottish Government’s Procurement Team.
• Guidance: Development of sector- and product-specific procurement best practice guidance to encourage the procurement of various products on a leased, re-used or remanufactured basis. 
• Mentoring:  One-to-one mentoring from 2014 to 2016 aided the development of Scottish Government procurement tools - life cycle impact mapping, prioritisation, sustainability and flexible framework assessment; this continued into 2017/18. 

The full report can be viewed here:  
https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/sites/default/files/ZWS1378%20CE%20Narrative%20Report%20FINAL.pdf