In the UK public sector, sustainability strategies are increasingly ambitious. Net zero targets, social value frameworks and greener digital transformation plans are now standard across central and local government. All these policy levers impact procurement, yet uncertainty about where to begin can impede progress on sustainable procurement.
Katherine Larocque from the Global Electronics Council (GEC) – stewards of EPEAT, a leading ecolabel for electronic products – argues that it is important to choose progress over perfection.
“Organisations don’t have to wait to have an advanced sustainable procurement strategy in place before beginning to prioritise more sustainable products and services. Sustainable procurement readiness ranges from organisations with dynamic procurement strategies underpinned by GHG inventories and monitoring frameworks to organisations just starting to consider the environmental and social impacts of the products and services they buy.”
Regardless of where on the spectrum an organisation may be, Larocque encourages organisations to start incorporating sustainability considerations into their procurement process as soon as possible, as seemingly small actions can collectively lead to considerable positive impacts over time. As an organisation is in the process of developing a more comprehensive strategy, they may begin to engage more proactively with key vendors to understand where potential environmental and social risks reside in their supply chains. Many seek to purchase products that have obtained a credible Type 1 ecolabel with criteria covering products they need. Even without perfect data or full visibility into supply chains and impacts, organisations should begin to take incremental steps to ensure sustainability considerations are reflected in their purchases.
Mature organisations recognise sustainability as part of long-term value management rather than a niche consideration. This is also particularly true when it comes to ICT strategies and procurement, since ICT equipment can have a complex environmental and social footprint that extends deep into supply chains. Momentum can easily stall when procurement teams struggle to take incremental action in the face of complex policy directives and evolving regulations as they decipher environmental claims made by vendors
Failing to leverage existing sustainable procurement tools and resources like ecolabels is an ongoing lost opportunity to deliver on net zero and broader sustainability goals. It results in slowing progress at precisely the moment when cumulative action matters most.
“For many organisations, procurement is one of the simplest and most immediate avenues to make progress on sustainability goals,” said Larocque. “And for most organisations, leveraging a credible ecolabel can act as an “easy button” to address complex sustainability topics in the electronics sector.”
Procurement as a lever for long-term impact
For digital government leaders overseeing large-scale ICT estates – from laptops and servers to mobile devices and datacentre infrastructure – purchasing decisions can have large long-term impacts. They form a cumulative process that shapes environmental and social impacts over years.
GEC advises embedding credible Type I ecolabels meeting ISO 14024 standard directly into procurement processes. Rather than redesigning procurement systems from scratch, organisations can use established criteria and robust verification systems that are built into ecolabels to guide purchasing decisions within existing frameworks.
This approach is particularly relevant in the UK, where procurement teams must balance cost pressures, compliance requirements and operational demands while also delivering against environmental targets.
Bridging ambition and day-to-day purchasing
A persistent gap remains between high-level sustainability commitments and everyday ICT purchasing decisions. Ecolabels, experts argue, can serve as the operational bridge between policy ambition and procurement reality.
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“EPEAT establishes criteria to address a full range of sustainability issues for ICT products across climate change mitigation, circularity, chemicals of concern and responsible supply chains,” said Larocque. “They allow purchasers to identify more sustainable products that help move the needle on their sustainability goals”
This is especially valuable for overstretched public sector procurement functions, which often lack the technical capacity and expertise to develop procurement requirements that address complex environmental and social issues across global supply chains.
The robust, independent verification systems built into Type I ecolabels ensure purchasers can trust that a product bearing an ecolabel meets the criteria, which also means purchasers don’t have to conduct their own verification or become conformity assurance experts. By establishing structured criteria, assessment processes and oversight mechanisms, ecolabels enable procurement teams to make confident decisions without conducting resource-intensive technical audits or becoming sustainability experts.
Consistency over perfection in a fast-moving tech sector
Attempting to gather and weigh massive volumes of information to make a “perfect” decision often acts as a barrier to sustainable ICT procurement. In practice, perfection is both elusive and constantly evolving, particularly in the rapidly changing technology sector.
“There is no single perfect solution that can match the impact of years of consistent, sustainability-guided ICT procurement,” said Larocque. “Consistency sends stable signals to suppliers and leads to improved product offerings over time.”
Evolving ecolabel frameworks help address this challenge through periodic update cycles that reflect new scientific understanding, manufacturing practices and global best practices. This allows public sector buyers to make progressive improvements rather than waiting for static, idealised benchmarks.
From targets to tangible outcomes
Many public bodies have already set ambitious environmental targets. However, the gap between target-setting and measurable outcomes often lies in implementation.
Procurement leaders who achieve demonstrable sustainability impacts, said Larocque, tend to integrate sustainability directly into procurement policies and evaluation criteria rather than treating it as a separate objective.
Standardised tools and ecolabels can significantly reduce the organisational burden of implementation, making sustainable procurement more scalable across large and complex purchasing environments.
Lessons from public sector practice
Examples within the UK public sector suggest that sustained, standardised approaches can deliver measurable results. The Scottish Government’s long-term use of EPEAT-aligned purchasing, for instance, demonstrates how consistent criteria can generate impact across large ICT portfolios over time. Scotland is a great example demonstrating that success often comes from integrating credible tools into existing procurement frameworks and maintaining consistency year after year.
