GERP practice activity 2

Nadja works for the Ministry of Childcare and has been asked to organize an event for her ministry. This will be the annual day of learning, and Nadja is looking to hire a company to run the event for her. She needs to find qualified vendors to choose an event location. She'll also need printed learning materials. Lastly, she'll need catering for breaks during the event. Nadja has been learning about the Guidelines for Environmentally Responsible Procurement. She wants to consider them when planning this procurement. She wants to include the right questions and criteria in her solicitation. She will then evaluate vendors based on those.  

After brainstorming with her team, she has come up with several factors to include in the procurement process. Consider the details about Nadja’s procurement. You'll decide if they belong in the planning, solicitation, or evaluation phases of the procurement process. 

Factors to include in the procurement process

• Considering sustainability: Explain how the food and serving products (e.g.: plates, napkins, cutlery etc.) will be sourced, packaged, served and recycled. Provide detailed examples of all steps and processes that you will undertake to demonstrate sustainability. 
• Environmental responsibility will account for 10% of the total points that proponents can earn when their proposals are evaluated. This will be disclosed in the explanation of the evaluation process.
• What are the risks of not including environmentally responsible and measurable criteria in the procurement?
• Explain how the event location will meet sustainability factors (e.g.: heating, cooling, lighting, water use and laundry practices).
• Describe the types of travel the proponent plans to promote and make available to participants to produce the least possible carbon footprint for emissions.
• Evaluation criteria will be included in the solicitation. This supports vendor's understanding of how to craft their proposal appropriately.
• Nadja wants to consider the entire life cycle of the goods used for the event when designing this solicitation. 
• Nadja will evaluate proponents based on their price, skills, experience. She will also look at commitment to environmental sustainability. This will be disclosed in the explanation of the evaluation criteria. 
• This solicitation should consider all available options that vendors propose. As such, Nadja wants to make sure there is enough time to review all of the submitted proposals.        

Take the above nine factors and decide whether each one fits within the planning, solicitation, or evaluation portion of the procurement process.

Practice activity 2: answer key