SPP IN RIJKSWATERSTAAT

Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) is part of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and responsible for the design, construction, management and maintenance of the main infrastructure facilities in the Netherlands.

RWS is a frontrunner in mainstreaming sustainable and circular procurement. Its ambition is to plan and execute their work completely circularly by 2010. The goal is reach a fully circular operation by 2050.  

SPP HIGHLIGHTS

• Bidders that can prove that their operations lead to significant CO2 reductions have an advantage in RWS’s tenders. The tool to prove this is the CO2 is the CO2 performance ladder, which RWS developed for this purpose.
• RWS developed the first national SPP criteria tool, which procurers can use online for all product categories. It provides environmental and social criteria
• RWS has their own innovation procurement and sustainable procurement policy that supports all procurement processes
• Supporter of the Dutch Green Deal Circular Procurement

CONTACT

SPP IN ACTION

POLICY AND STRATEGY

RWS’s procurement policy and strategy is based on three pillars:

• Sustainability
• Efficient procurement processes
• Optimal value for money

RWS applies SPP criteria in all tender documents since 2010. In order to achieve these objectives, RWS uses functional specifications for infrastructure projects, together with tools to gauge bidders’ commitments to reducing carbon emissions within projects and to assess the life cycleenvironmental impacts of the materials they propose to use. These commitments and impacts are monetised within the award phase of the tender and quoted prices are adjusted accordingly. The methods aim to stimulate and utilise the market’s creative capacities more efficiently and allow contractors to work in a targeted way towards better quality, more innovative solutions.

The CO2 performance ladders help bidders to commit to certain CO2 emission reduction level in their general operations. When the sustainability of the work or service contracted is an award criterion, bidders can use RWS’s DuboCalc method which allows to include price reductions for relative sustainability gains achieved through the implementation of the contract.

There are other methods that RWS uses to implement SPP, such as sustainable construction logistics and “Social Return on Investment”.

RWS’s full procurement vision and strategy can be found here.

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