“We have to search for innovative solutions to achieve our sustainability goals”
Sustainable procurement is becoming more important for driving change in the value chain. Increased regulation and legislation aimed at achieving the climate-neutrality goals of the Paris Agreement and the EU Green Deal are having an impact on the healthcare sector. Several healthcare organisations in Europe are taking the lead on more sustainable procurement. The public sector in the Nordic countries is relatively far ahead of the game, and Oslo municipality is a shining example.
For the last few years, Oslo municipality has systematically included sustainability requirements in its procurements, and its target is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 95% by the end of 2030. To accelerate the pace of change, the municipality has intensified its expectations of suppliers with a view to achieving net-zero emissions.
“Politicians view sustainable procurement as a crucial tool for driving change and reaching our climate goals. Consequently, they have gradually increased resources and the purchasing unit for sustainable purchasing has grown from 2 to 27 people in five years, many of whom are experts in specific aspects of sustainability”, explains Espen Drønnen Nicolaysen, Manager of the Central purchasing department’s Sustainable development section at Oslo municipality.
Espen specifically emphasises the importance of stakeholder dialogues and of getting several perspectives from value chain participants, and weighing up alternative solutions.
“This is crucial to make sure that there is a complete understanding of the consequences of different procurement criteria”, explains Espen.
Striking a balance between pushing the market towards greater sustainability and simultaneously ensuring cost-efficiency and diversity of products is tricky ”, says Espen. But he has seen that many players involved are positive.
“We have to search for innovative solutions to achieve our sustainability goals. This might involve evaluating suppliers with different business models such as car-pooling services instead of buying new vehicles, and thereby also reassess how the organisation is run.
This adds a new dimension to the procurement process and gives it new meaning”, says Espen.
Expects faster pace of transition
Espen expects that healthcare-sector purchasers will start trying to accelerate the transition to products with renewable and recyclable materials while they simultaneously endeavour to reduce single-use articles and plastics. He looks forward to the development of third- party eco-labelling and being able to introduce this as a requirement in certain areas. But Espen believes that it is largely down to promoting behavioural changes.
“Sustainable procurement is about changing behaviours for the long term. We need to break old habits and adopt new methods. The biggest challenge to achieving our sustainability goals is getting everyone to work towards the same goals”, concludes Espen.
Greater focus on environmental aspects in procurements
Asker’s position as a link between product companies and caregivers allows the Group to support customers in their climate-related efforts. At the same time, new legal requirements and the interest in sustainability is creating new business opportunities, not least in helping customers to reduce emissions. Providing products with a lower carbon footprint is one area where substantial emissions reductions can be achieved.
Examples of progress during 2023:
Cordaan, one of the leading elderly care companies in the Netherlands, decided during the year to replace its annual volume of 11.5 million medical examination gloves made of nitrile with the Embra Proceed glove. Through this switch they will reduce their CO2e emissions by 197 tonnes.
A hospital in Switzerland wants to make better environmental choices without com-promising on safety. Asker presented the Embra Proceed glove as a solution. The quality was praised in one test, both in terms of comfort and durability, and the hospital selected Embra Proceed as its new standard glove.
Asker has developed several long-term relationships in Norway. One of these is with Oslo municipality which chose to switch to the Embra Proceed glove in September 2023 after a thorough evaluation. Once it has completely transitioned to the new glove, the municipality could reduce emissions by 182 tonnes of CO2e per year.
The calculation in these examples are based on the LCA for Evercare Medical’s conventional nitrile gloves compared to the replacement glove, Embra Proceed.
