Webinar – Sustainable Procurement and Government Buying Standards: What’s Changed and What It Means for Your Organisation
A one-hour working session for public sector procurement, social value and sustainability leads from both public and private sectors.
whatimpact and Ikonic Technology are hosting a focused, content-led session covering resent developments that are reshaping how public sector organisations procure, report, and evidence value.
Part 1 — Maximising social value in procurement and grants (whatimpact CEO Tiia Sammallahti, 10 min)
Three specific things procurement teams can do differently to get more measurable impact from social value commitments – Based on facilitating VCSE grant programmes and social value in procurement aligned with framework targets across the UK
Part 2 — Government Buying Standards: case example what’s changing for IT hardware procurement (Ikonic Technology, 25 min)
DEFRA is updating the Government Buying Standards across procurement categories including IT hardware, as part of the Greening Government Commitments and the UK Net Zero Strategy. This section covers:
- What the updated GBS now requires, and which organisations are directly mandated to comply — central government departments, NHS trusts and ICSs, local authorities, multi-academy trusts, and organisations procuring via CCS frameworks
- Where enforcement is already happening and what non-compliance looks like in practice
- What this means for housing associations, schools and indirectly affected organisations that need to stay competitive and fundable
- How circular IT hardware procurement maps to Scope 3 emissions reporting and social value commitments
- What private sector suppliers need to do now to remain credible in public sector bids and contract delivery
Part 3 — Social value platform landscape: what the UK market actually offers (Tiia Sammallahti, 15 min)
An honest comparison of the categories of social value technology available in the UK — what each type of platform does, what it doesn’t do, and how to evaluate which is appropriate for your procurement to scale and evidence requirements.
Q&A (10 min)
What you’ll leave with
Specific, tested patterns for social value and grant criteria, evaluation and reporting standards.
A working understanding of the updated Government Buying Standards and their practical implications for your organisation
A clearer framework for evaluating social value technology against your actual compliance and evidence requirements
A copy of the GBS briefing PDF to share with your team
Who this is for
Procurement leads, social value officers, sustainability and ESG leads, grant programme managers, and community investment teams, primarily from councils, combined authorities, NHS trusts, housing associations and central government departments. Private sector organisations that supply into the public sector and need to understand what the updated standards require of them are equally welcome.
About the partners
whatimpact operates the National Social Value Marketplace®, providing the system of record and governance infrastructure for social value compliance across UK public sector procurement and grant programmes.
Ikonic Technology is a sustainable IT distributor specialising in circular IT procurement — new, as-new, refurbished, end-of-life and difficult-to-source hardware — working with public sector buyers and major resellers on GBS-aligned procurement.
We look forward to having you attend the event!