Sustainable Procurement Policy

Overview:

It is SoftwareIDM's policy to practice continuous improvement to understanding and taking responsibility for adverse environmental, social, and economic impacts of its purchasing. In doing so SoftwareIDM shall consider life-cycle impacts and prioritize actions according to alignment with SoftwareIDM's values, magnitude of impact, and compliance with laws and regulations.

Purpose:

This Policy is adopted in order to align the SoftwareIDM’s purchasing with its climate, social
equity, risk reduction, resource use reduction values and goals. In doing so, the SoftwareIDM seeks to harness the influence of its purchasing to support markets for, and increase accessibility to, more sustainable goods and services.

Applicability:

This policy applies to all types of SoftwareIDM-funded procurements and to all SoftwareIDM
divisions and employees. Specific employee roles, responsibilities, and expectations are further
described within this policy.

Policy Implementation:

In order to practice a continuous improvement approach to understanding and taking
appropriate responsibility for reducing the adverse environmental, social, and economic
impacts of its purchasing, this policy establishes the following implementation hierarchy:

1. Core Strategies. These establish overarching sustainable procurement strategies to
   implement over time. They provide value-aligned direction to take into account during
   project and program planning, and direction from which to build minimum
   requirements, best practices, and related implementation tools.
2. Leadership Opportunities. These are developed to identify (optional) opportunities for
   continuous improvement among stakeholders. They identify how to go beyond
   Minimum Requirements in a particular good or service category to further reduce
   adverse impacts.

All SoftwareIDM employees shall review the Core Strategies and leadership opportunities when planning and designing projects, developing project and operations budgets, developing asset management plans, writing product and service specifications or standards, selecting materials, making purchasing or supplier decisions, and developing and managing SoftwareIDM contracts and price agreements as applicable to their roles and responsibilities and/or to a specific project.

To align with our values for fair treatment of suppliers, SoftwareIDM adopts the UK Prompt Payment Code.

Core Strategies

For any of the following Core Strategies, it is understood that they shall be undertaken in conjunction with traditional purchasing considerations, such as budget, product/service performance requirements, and availability. Core Strategies provide direction for decision making. Prior to making new purchases,
employees are also expected to consider: the need for the purchase; opportunities to extend the life of the existing item or material; and meeting the operational need through a different means (e.g. renting vs. purchasing).

1. Utilize processes, technologies, products, or services that reduce consumption of natural resources or chemicals.
2. Employ processes, technologies, products, or services that reduce waste.
3. Invest in energy and fuel-efficient products, services, and technologies that result in simple paybacks of [identify timeframe, typically between 5-10] years or less, based on Total Cost of Ownership.
4. Invest in processes, technologies, products, or services that reduce the sourcing and use of Carbon-Based Fuels.
5. Seek processes, technologies, products, or services that support a Circular Economy.
6. Seek processes, technologies, products, or services that support biodiversity and healthy, resilient natural habitats.
7. Seek out, specify, and purchase products with lower Embodied Carbon than the status quo.
8. Seek out, specify, and purchase products that minimize exposure of Substances of Very High Concern to people and the environment.
9. Consciously design procurement processes and related programing to support a diverse contractor base, including small, minority, and/or women-owned businesses.
10. Seek out processes, technologies, goods, or services that support transparency in either or both the SoftwareIDM's supply chain or product disposal endpoints regarding compliance with environmental regulations and Core Labor and Human Rights in the Workplace.
11. When using social or environmental product labels, seek out social/ecolabels that demonstrate that the product or service was independently certified to a reputable third-party environmental and/or social product or service leadership standard, preferably a multi-attribute standard that evaluates products or services along their entire life cycle.
12. Whenever possible, utilize Life Cycle Costing methods to determine the full cost of a product, service, or design.

Minimum Requirements:

At minimum preference shall be given to purchasing products and services that have the following environmentally friendly attributes with acceptable parameters for price, quality, and delivery:

• Maximizes post-consumer recycled content
• Minimizes packaging and other wastes
• Avoids single-use plastics
• Minimizes toxicity
• Are durable and reusable
• Are more locally available to minimize transportation
• Are made from sustainably produced materials
• Are compostable or biodegradable (where composting services are available)
• Conserves energy, water, and other natural resources

Leadership Opportunities

Leadership Opportunities shall be well-researched to show that it is reasonable that the proposed action(s) will reduce an adverse impact with relatively low-risk to SoftwareIDM when well-implemented. It is understood that the action[s] is worth pursuing so long as italigns with the SoftwareIDM’s sustainability values, even if the proposed action hasn’t been tried or replicated by another public agency at the time it is proposed.

Created:

Jun 27, 2024

Revised:

Jun 27, 2024

Reviewed:

Jun 27, 2024 by Peter Sidebotham, Exec VP