whatimpact

Webinar - Sustainable Procurement and Government Buying Standards: What's Changed and What It Means for Your Organisation
2026-05-20 11:00 - 12:00 UTC | Online
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.

Wed, 20 May 2026 11:00 – 12:00 (UTC+00:00) Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London

We look forward to having you attend the event!

Webinar: Measuring Social Impact
2026-05-21 10:00 - 11:00
Overview

Join us to discover how to approach social impact within CSR and ESG strategies and social value within public sector procurement.

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS AN ONLINE EVENT DELIVERED VIA ZOOM
About the speaker
whatimpact is a UK-based social impact and social value platform, supporting organisations across England and Wales to connect with VCSEs (charities, community groups and social enterprises). Through the platform, businesses can contribute through funding, products, services and skills, while capturing structured evidence of outcomes and impact. We work extensively with SMEs and understand the practical realities of delivering impact alongside running a business – as an SME ourselves, this is at the core of how we support our users.
About the workshop
We’re delighted to invite TownSq members, SMEs, sole traders and social entrepreneurs to an upcoming webinar hosted in partnership between whatimpact and TownSq.
This session will introduce the whatimpact National Social Value Marketplace®.
During the webinar, we will walk through how organisations can approach both:

Social impact within CSR and ESG strategies
Social value within public sector procurement

As part of the Social Impact Challenge, all registered attendees will receive free 2-month to whatimpact’s premium services starting 18th May. This will give you the opportunity to actively engage with thousands of VCSEs already on the platform, many of whom are seeking support through products, services and skills-based contributions.
Participants will be able to:

Match directly with VCSEs across England and Wales
Deliver meaningful contributions aligned to their capacity and expertise
Generate unlimited impact reports demonstrating outcomes, impact and compelling stories with evidence – operates as verification for any monetised social value measure
Build evidence to support both CSR/ESG reporting and public sector procurement requirements
Receive practical support in using technology to manage partnerships and track delivery
Strengthen positioning for government tenders and opportunities within sustainable supply chains with larger enterprises

This initiative is designed to make social impact delivery accessible, structured and aligned to real opportunities for SMEs, helping translate what you already do into measurable and recognised impact.
We would be very pleased to have you join us.
By registering to this webinar, you claim the 2-month free access to the platform and support by whatimpact.com: https://whatimpact.com/private-sector/
Find whatimpact online
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/whatimpact/
Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whatimpact6894/videos
About us
TownSq Spaces is a certified B Corp with a reputation as a leader in helping entrepreneurs thrive – through a mix of in-person and online activities, consistently delivering impactful results.
We operate a growing network of coworking spaces, home to over 1,000 members, fostering thriving entrepreneurial communities across the UK. Head to TownSq.co.uk to find out more about what we do.
Need a hand?
Contact us on workshops@townsq.co.uk
