Digital Outcomes/G-Cloud: an update for CCS customers and suppliers

Update 12/04/23

We have taken the decision to extend this agreement by 8 weeks. DOS 5 will now expire on 14 June 2023. The reason for this extension is to give you enough time to finish any procurements you have already started on the Digital Marketplace. The Digital Marketplace will close for new opportunities from the 20 April 2023. After this date you will need to use Public Procurement Gateway to access DOS 6 for your new procurements.

Update 10/10/22

CCS has taken the decision to extend the term of the DOS 5 framework, meaning it will remain open for customers to call off from for a further three months and will now expire on 19 April 2023.

The purpose of this short extension is to ensure that customers can continue to buy the services they need whilst we complete our user testing to ensure that when DOS 6 is launched, it will deliver the best experience for customers and suppliers.

Update 26/08/22

CCS has taken the decision to vary the framework term of G-Cloud 12, meaning it will remain open for customers to call off from for two months after its current end date, until 27 November. 

This will ensure that customers can continue to buy the services they need and will give us the additional time to ensure that when G-Cloud 13 is launched on 9 November, it will deliver the best experience for customers and suppliers.

What is happening?

Following careful consideration, CCS has taken the difficult decision to delay the launch of Digital Outcomes (DOS6) and G-Cloud 13. We have set out, below, the reasons and what this means for customers and suppliers.

UPDATE: G-Cloud 13 will launch on 9 November.

Why are the agreements delayed?

CCS is working to make our agreements easier to use, enabling a better experience for our customers. We are developing a new digital service for buyers to access a number of our commercial agreements, including DOS6 and G-Cloud 13. 

We are focused on ensuring the user testing is informing the final product and this has identified further feedback and insight that we need to consider in more depth before we can roll this out to our customers. We therefore took the decision to delay the go-live of DOS6 and G-Cloud 13. We appreciate that this will be disappointing for many of our customers and suppliers, but are confident that delaying the launch is the right thing to do and will allow us to go live later in the year with an improved digital experience.

Advice for customers and suppliers

What can current/prospective customers and suppliers of DOS and G-Cloud do during this delay?

Both DOS5 and G-Cloud 12 are still live agreements. Any live procurements will continue and any new procurements can start and be seen through to award. Once we have concluded the testing on our new digital service, we will communicate the dates that the new agreements will be launched.

When can customers start to use DOS6 and G-Cloud 13?

We are working hard to deliver improvements to our new digital service that have been identified as part of the user testing and will aim to provide further updates on anticipated go-live dates when these are available. G-Cloud 13 will be launched on 9 November. Our plan is to launch DOS6 later in the year.

When and how will CCS communicate further on this?

Further updates will be posted on the relevant agreements’ webpages and through CCS’s usual channels including customer newsletters. Communications will be issued to suppliers on the respective agreements. 

What does this mean for use of the current Digital Marketplace?

Customers will continue to conduct their procurements on the Digital Marketplace platform while using DOS5 and G-Cloud 12. Suppliers will continue to access the Digital Marketplace for DOS5 and G-Cloud 12. DOS6 and G-Cloud 13 customers will be directed to the relevant platform to procure services when ready.

What to do now

Prospective customers or suppliers of Digital Outcomes and G-Cloud do not need to take any action at this time. 

DOS5 and G-Cloud 12 continue to be available until their published expiry dates. Further updates will be published on the relevant agreement pages in due course.

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G-Cloud 13 agreement goes live

Thousands of small businesses have once again won the chance to bid to supply cloud computing services to the public sector.

G-Cloud 13 has now been awarded and is live for customers to buy from. 5,006 suppliers have each been awarded a place on the agreement. Over 40,000 services will be available for customers to access, subject to a process of additional assurance. 

Over 90% of the overall suppliers on G-Cloud 13 are small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). 72% are micro and small organisations, demonstrating that G-Cloud continues to offer opportunities to suppliers of all sizes.

G-Cloud offers public sector organisations a straightforward and compliant way to purchase cloud based services, such as hosting, software, and support. 

£1.5 billion, an average of £150 million each year, has been accrued in commercial benefits over the lifetime of the G-Cloud agreement, representing significant savings for the public purse.

This latest iteration will see the introduction of a fourth lot for further competition for cloud support services for larger, more complex requirements. In addition, the call-off term across the agreement has changed to 36 months with an optional 12 month extension.

Philip Orumwense, Commercial Director and Chief Procurement Officer for Technology at Crown Commercial Service, said: 

G-Cloud has been a huge success and is popular due to the high SME inclusion and the ease with which services can be bought by customers. 

The latest iteration of the agreement will offer improved terms and conditions for customers, a wider range of competition across cloud professional support services and access to increased innovation and ideas, using state of the art technologies.

As part of our goal to make CCS agreements easier to use and enable a better experience for customers, G-Cloud 13 will now be accessible through a new digital Contract Award Service (CAS). CAS will support future iterations of G-Cloud in an agile manner, as well as eventually digitally enabling all CCS agreements across our broad portfolio. The aim of this digital enablement is to provide to our customers (buyers and suppliers), a full end to end digital procurement experience. We will continue iterating the CAS platform over the coming months and additional functionality, such as G-Cloud supplier transparency functionality, will be launched later this year.

Customers will need to register through the Public Procurement Gateway (PPG) to buy through G-Gloud 13.

CCS also has a set of Memorandum of Understandings (MoU’s) negotiated to enhance commercial value across a wide range of cloud suppliers and services which can be procured through G-Cloud 13. For more information please visit our MoU page.  

To find out more about G-Cloud 13, visit the framework page or join a customer webinar.

For any questions about buying through the framework or to request access to an MoU’s pricing model, get in touch.

Helping the public sector move to the cloud on their digital transformation journey

Start your journey to the cloud

The cloud market is flooded with options that disrupt the ways in which IT departments provision, manage and orchestrate resources. It is no longer a question of ‘if’, but instead ‘when’ for organisations that are yet to begin their digital journey into the cloud. 

One of the main considerations is cloud migration vs adoption. Migration helps improve resilience and bring costs down in the short term, but may not reduce technical debt. Cloud adoption is a longer term strategy which increases value and organisation improvements which will leverage greater benefits over the whole technology lifecycle. Adoption therefore requires more time and a strategic vision and plan.

Benefits of moving to the cloud

An obvious benefit of moving to the cloud includes the reduction of maintenance costs that rely on antiquated infrastructure and legacy servers, storage and compute. Cloud service providers can alternatively offer rapid scalability with the flexibility to increase or decrease consumption as business needs change. This flexibility reduces waste by minimising the overprovisioning of unrequired services. It also empowers organisations to adopt an agile model where, when used correctly, they only need to pay for what is used.

How does moving to the cloud work?

An organisation starts by defining their business applications, services and operational requirements currently provided. These can be defined as workloads which provide services or a specific business application. Each workload is then individually considered for migration to a cloud environment. For some workloads, a move into the cloud is straightforward, but each case will require consideration of the technical architecture: compute, storage, operating system, network, access, security. Assuming the technical architecture presents no issues the workload becomes an opportunity for cloud migration.

However, there are examples where this is not straightforward. These include critical data and applications running on mainframes that are required to interact with hardware chips or proprietary hardware systems that only few staff members access. Another example is large relational database systems which experience latency and other performance issues. Throwing these examples into the mix, along with an unstable internet connection and the absence of a well-defined cloud strategy can be problematic for an under-resourced and budget scarce public sector organisation. 

Challenges of moving to the cloud

Moving to the cloud can be challenging for organisations faced with competing demands. Selecting the right solution for evolving business requirements and effecting the change takes time. For some organisations, the digital transformation journey may take longer than others, with a phased approach being adopted for certain workloads whilst some legacy remains. This can be described as a hybrid environment which can add significant cost and risk, specifically maintaining operational continuity, security, data integrity, processes, and standards. Legacy workloads may then benefit from migration to a managed facility, such as Crown Hosting, as this will offer a higher level of resilience, security and carbon reduction benefits. Skills retention and knowledge management in a hybrid environment becomes a critical operational issue that an organisation will need to carefully manage, as any loss of people may result in additional risk to an organisation’s objectives. 

How to adopt cloud first policy for improved security

Many organisations are adopting the government’s Cloud First Policy to obtain an improved security posture for their technology estate. Moving to the cloud increases the level of automated security. This can reduce the time-intensive patch work needed to stay secure and minimise data security risks as a result of standardised security features. Therefore, it is important for organisations moving to the cloud to understand their security obligations, especially where a shared responsibility model applies. In a typical shared responsibility model, cloud service providers are responsible for protecting the infrastructure that runs all of their services. 

Customers are responsible for securing the data they put in the cloud. Sensitive data is most at risk while being transferred from a legacy environment into the cloud, so it is important for buyers to build these considerations into their procurement strategy. When performing migrations you need to consider including an approach around service onboarding and the implementation of a disaster recovery strategy once the new service is in place. Just as critical as onboarding considerations, offboarding plans and costs for the end of a service requirement should be embedded into the procurement strategy and budgeting, with the security risks considered and mitigated or minimised. As well as meeting the government’s expectations for services to be “Secure by Design”, the requirement for additional security services or tooling early in the procurement process may for example, minimise the risk of unforeseen costs once the service is in place and will enable organisations to develop realistic budgetary requirements.

Monitoring cloud performance and cost efficiency

Once an organisation has workloads or applications in the cloud, the ability to effectively monitor cloud performance and cost efficiency is paramount. This critical capability helps determine whether the cloud services that have been adopted provide best overall business value. 

Without appropriate financial guardrails in place, avoidable costs can quickly spiral. Cloud financial operations (FinOps) helps provide financial accountability and visibility by giving organisations the ability to manage usage more effectively. The upfront costs of tooling, developing skills and upgrading the organisational culture required to achieve these efficiencies may help to ensure the transformational journey to cloud is worthwhile and will reduce the risk of avoidable cost spikes over the longer term. However, this is difficult to achieve without the right cultural environment for change, upskilling, and enhancing capability through training. For some organisations, it makes more sense to acquire a service provider that has these capabilities whilst they commit to investing time in developing in-house upskilling and effecting cultural change. 

How CCS (now GCA) can help

CCS (now GCA) has a wide portfolio of commercial routes to market for your cloud and hosting requirements. These include framework agreements such as Cloud Compute, G Cloud, Technology Services, Big Data and Analytics, and Back Office Software. Through these agreements we can help you purchase relevant solutions for your needs from the leading suppliers of cloud and hosted services. Additionally, our centrally agreed Memorandums of Understanding with strategic suppliers to the government can help you achieve further commercial benefits, as well as supporting important government policies. 

The overall strategy for cloud in government is, and should remain, “Cloud First”, however, in a hybrid environment, use of on-premise, private, and other “platform as a service”, and “infrastructure as a service” allows continuation of legacy systems and use of Crown Hosting facilities providing significant commercial, environmental, and security benefits.

Our dedicated commercial specialists have deep category knowledge and can help you to understand your organisation’s requirements, and provide appropriate buyer guidance to support your digital transformation journey. 

Let us bring power to your procurement

To find out more about how we can help you start or move forward on your journey to cloud, get in touch:

Legacy vs cloud ICT infrastructure

But first, what is the government’s policy and why?

The government’s Cloud First Policy and desire for digital transformation to improve outcomes has produced demonstrable benefits across the public sector. In the government roadmap for digital and data, mission 4 lays out how we will modernise across the public sector, making sure all our major systems operate in appropriate environments which are safe and secure. Additionally, mission 6 seeks to improve digital skills across government, which includes our understanding and skills in cloud. At CCS, we’re here to help you adopt this policy.

What is legacy infrastructure?

Legacy infrastructure means the information and communications technology (ICT) devices or applications that are old and out of support. It can also refer to hardware and operating system architectures that are not typically offered by mainstream public cloud vendors.

How is cloud better than legacy systems?

Adopting the public cloud is key because it offers tools, features and ways of working that maximise organisational adaptability and scalability. It is a great way to improve operating models and workforce skills. It provides:

  • increased security and resilience
  • improved carbon net zero outcomes
  • improved value for money

One example of the benefits of public cloud is that the vendor’s underlying ICT is located in large hyperscale data centres. These buildings are extremely efficient, which lowers the cost and reduces carbon.

This has led to increased cloud spend. The cloud spend for organisations of all sizes ​​is growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17% per annum, compared to 7% on legacy (Gartner, 2022).

Balancing cost and performance

Picking the right migration strategy is key to getting the best value for money out of the cloud. It’s important to balance performance with cost to make the right choice for your organisation.

We know the balance is difficult. For some services, the choice of public cloud is obvious. For example, for some organisations, migration may be easy and once complete, will lower operating costs. For others, migration may be time-consuming, expensive and potentially increasing operating costs once in public cloud.

In order to manage this transition effectively, most IT leaders in the public sector are leaning towards a hybrid strategy. It enables you to benefit from the best of traditional ICT, private cloud and community cloud alongside public cloud.

As part of the government’s review of its Cloud First Policy, the Central Digital and Data Office are further developing the advice and support they provide to promote smaller scale changes, cloud adoption and to move to more cloud-like automation, including private cloud examples and the move to platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS), all of which will help you move away from legacy.

Crown Hosting – an alternative to public cloud

For those ICT services that are not yet ready to be migrated to public cloud, our Crown Hosting agreement is an option. Crown Hosting uses the same campus-based hyperscale data centre technology as the public cloud vendors, and shares the same sites. It provides you with a low cost and minimal carbon footprint for traditional ICT, private cloud and community cloud.

The commercial benefits of Crown Hosting fall into 2 categories, direct and indirect. Directly, customers that relocate to Crown Hosting, with no ICT changes, will reduce their electricity consumption and their bill by 75% on average. Crown Hosting also offers better pricing of the services when compared against other equivalent providers in the UK market. Indirectly, Crown Hosting can help you make further savings. These sites are home to a large community of public sector organisations, all of which need network connectivity, ICT service provision and related products and services. This large community generates demand, leading to opportunities for further savings through competition.

Additionally, as organisations continue to develop transformation strategies, Crown Hosting hybrid environment provides a technological solution for cost savings and advancing carbon reductions.

Next steps and how we can help you

Our dedicated commercial specialists have deep category knowledge and can help you to understand your organisation’s requirements. They can advise on strategy, fulfilment and best practice to support your commercial strategy.

To find out more about how we can help you start or progress on your migration journey, get in touch:

Changes to our agreements in April

Welcome to our monthly framework update to help you with your procurement planning. We will publish it online each month and also share it in our newsletters and on our social media channels.

The update provides a brief summary of what has been awarded, extended or expired during the previous month. It also outlines what is due to expire in the next 3 months.

You can also get an overview of all of our live frameworks in our interactive digital brochure.

Agreements awarded in April  

Agreements extended in April

Agreements that expired in April

Agreements due to expire in the next 3 months

Further information

If you need further details about any of these agreements please get in touch.

You can also find out what new procurements we are working on by exploring our upcoming deals page.

If you don’t currently receive our monthly customer newsletter why not also subscribe to receive these updates and more directly to your inbox? Just fill in this short form.

CCS and NHS England celebrate first year of construction partnership

Background

In spring 2022 Crown Commercial Service (CCS) partnered with NHS England on a new construction agreement. The Construction Works and Associated Services 2 / ProCure23 agreement recognises the importance of public sector construction to support economic recovery, providing health bodies in England with a new way to buy construction works and associated services. 

Where we are now

After 12 months of partnership we are pleased to announce that 17 projects have been formally awarded, totalling almost £708 million. In addition, there are currently 27 projects in the pipeline totalling a further £780 million.

Projects that have been awarded through this agreement include:

  • Countess of Chester Hospital – a new build project for the Women and Children’s Department 
  • University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust – a new Clinical Diagnostic Centre
  • Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust – a new Elective Theatres Project

John Welch, Deputy Director for Construction at CCS said:

‘I’m pleased that we’ve been able to collaborate successfully with our partners at NHS England over the last 12 months as we help to support trusts with their capital programmes. This shows the benefits of engaging with CCS, adding greater value for the public sector and helping NHS England deliver the projects the public need. We look forward to this continued partnership and providing savings for our customers and the public.’

Simon Corben, Director of Estates and Facilities and Head of Profession at NHS England, said:

“It’s been a successful first year of the collaboration between NHS England and CCS to provide a tried-and-tested route to market for NHS capital projects through ProCure23. Together, we are making it easier to increase our estate’s capacity through new builds, address backlog maintenance, and reconfigure spaces to better meet the health and care needs of our local communities. With lots in the pipeline, I look forward to seeing the benefits we can deliver in terms of a fit for purpose estate and excellent patient care.”

What our customers have to say

Marc Johnson, Senior Buyer, Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 

‘The agreement was easy to use with templates and instructions available, advisors were also always available to support’

The agreement

Launched in March 2022, the agreement gives local trusts access to suppliers who can help them to increase their estate’s capacity through new builds, addressing backlog maintenance and reconfiguring spaces to better meet the health and care needs of their local communities. 

Lots 1-3 are specifically for healthcare projects in England, while lots 4 and 5 are available to all public sector bodies in the UK. 

The agreement runs alongside our existing Construction Works and Associated Services agreement which helps support a wide range of major and minor building and civil engineering projects of all values for the public sector, helping our customers build everything from new schools and hospitals to prisons and houses. 

Since the partnership began, over 40 NHS trusts have registered to use the agreement. These trusts have also become CCS Alliance members, gaining access to a range of benefits including:

  • access to capped prices through our construction agreements
  • a robust pool of approved suppliers 
  • a library of guidance materials
  • procurement document templates and examples
  • access to customer forums to share best practice

Let us bring power to your procurement

To find out more about our Construction Works and Associated Services 2 / Procure23 agreement, please visit our framework page. To speak to a member of our expert team, please complete our online form or call us on: 0345 410 2222.

You can also visit our construction webpage to learn more about our complete construction offering and check out our handy resources; from webinars, podcasts, to interactive guides – we’ve got you covered. 

Mobile voice and data aggregations save customers over £11 million

In 2022 26 customers joined 4 mobile voice and data aggregations and saved a total of £11.4 million. This is equivalent to an average of 73% when compared to previous costs.

The requirement

Buying mobile voice and data services at various points in the year can result in different start and end dates for mobile phone contracts. This makes it difficult to switch suppliers to get better value and a quality service.

Our technology aggregation team helps customers save time and money by combining their mobile voice and data requirements with other organisations. 

The solution

We run mobile voice and data aggregations 3 to 4 times a year to help achieve best value for our customers, taking both price and quality into consideration. In 2022, we ran the further competitions using lot 6 of Network Services 2. In 2023 we will use lot 2 of the new Mobile Voice and Data Services agreement.

Based on the customers interested in taking part in each aggregation we are able to estimate minimum savings and maximum prices. These are guaranteed minimum savings that all customers who take part can expect to receive.

Our technology aggregation team runs the further competition on behalf of participating customers, identifying the supplier who offers the best quality and price for the requirements. Each customer has a standalone contract with the winning supplier.

The results

Across the 4 aggregations we ran in 2022:

  • 6 health customers saved £1.8 million or 85% on average
  • 5 local authorities saved £2 million or 77% on average
  • 2 charities saved £375,000 or 80% on average
  • 2 emergency services customers saved £5.4 million or 71% on average
  • 3 education customers saved £239,000 or 70% on average
  • 8 central government/non-departmental bodies/regulatory bodies saved £1.6 million or 71% on average

Essex County Council was one of the customers who took part. They said:

This was our first experience of an aggregation for mobile voice and data services and we will definitely consider further aggregation opportunities.
The aggregation achieved huge savings in comparison to our previous service. We were well supported by Crown Commercial Service throughout the process and the fact that they ran the tender had the added benefit of reducing our own procurement overhead.

Let us bring power to procurement

By bringing together customers from across the public sector with similar needs, we can increase our national buying power and achieve savings that would not be possible through individual buying.

We will also save you time and resources. We draft all documentation, build the specification and run the procurement for you.

Get involved

Our next mobile voice and data services aggregation is now open. You have until Friday 16 June 2023 to submit your requirements, with a formal contract award set to take place in August 2023.

Visit our aggregation web page to find out more about aggregation and if you would like to take part, please complete our online form quoting ‘mobile voice and data aggregation’ in the comment box and a member of our team will be in touch.

If this timetable doesn’t work for you, we are also offering aggregations with closing dates of Friday 13 October 2023 and Friday 15 March 2024.

Join us for a webinar at 10am on Thursday 27 April to learn more. Book your place.

Changes to our agreements in March

Welcome to our monthly framework update to help you with your procurement planning. We will publish it online each month and also share it in our newsletters and on our social media channels.

The update provides a brief summary of what has been awarded, extended or expired during the previous month. It also outlines what is due to expire in the next 3 months.

You can also get an overview of all of our live frameworks in our interactive digital brochure.

Agreements awarded in March  

Agreements extended in March

Agreements that expired in March

Agreements due to expire in the next 3 months

Further information

If you need further details about any of these agreements please get in touch.

You can also find out what new procurements we are working on by exploring our upcoming deals page.

If you don’t currently receive our monthly customer newsletter why not also subscribe to receive these updates and more directly to your inbox? Just fill in this short form.

How to achieve carbon neutral warehousing and storage

Even though the UK is at the forefront of the fight against climate change, decarbonisation needs to happen faster. Short-term and long-term storage, a common requirement for the public sector, are opportunities where introducing more sustainable solutions can reduce carbon emissions in the logistics sector.

In a previous article, I explained how the public sector, logistics industry, and providers can work together to cut transport-related carbon emissions. In this article, I narrow the focus to look more closely at the warehousing and storage aspect of the logistics industry. 

More efficient warehouse management systems can help shrink carbon emissions by reducing space waste, enabling more sustainable materials distribution, and minimising heating and cooling costs. 

Here are 5 innovative ways of reducing carbon emissions after the freight you’ve shipped is stored:

1. Seek out opportunities to switch oil-based plastics for biodegradable and non-fossil-fuel-derivatives

Conventional plastic used in traditional packaging is commonly produced from oil-based fossil fuel derivatives. However, new plant-based alternatives to traditional oil-based plastic consumables are gaining traction in the logistics industry. 

Made from plant-based sources rather than traditional fossil fuel-derived plastic, they are often designed to be biodegradable or 100% recyclable. Instead of releasing fossil carbon into the air, these consumables remove present-day carbon from the environment, representing a carbon-neutral alternative. Plant-based polyethene mailbags and pallet wrap produced from sugar cane are examples of alternative products in use today.

2. Switch to greener stacking and packing

The traditional wooden pallet has been largely unchanged for decades, but even this industry mainstay has a more sustainable alternative. Sustainable options include reclaimed and reformed wood pallets with load capabilities equal to their traditional counterparts. Protective packaging is also available in greener alternatives produced from starch, reformed wooden furniture, and recycled paper.

3. Build sustainable design into storage facilities

It’s no secret that warehousing real estate is currently in high demand with new facilities being erected along many motorways around the country. In many cases, developers are giving greater consideration to the green credentials of the new premises. For example, new builds include design elements such as improved insulation, solar and wind power-generation facilities, and heat pumps and charging stations that are eco-friendly and more cost-efficient. Older facilities can also be retrofitted with greener heating, cooling, and lighting components. 

Energy-efficient LED warehouse lighting is used in new builds and retrofitted in older structures. Linking LED lighting with motion sensors helps reduce energy consumption even further, ensuring that lighting is only ever used where needed.

4. Plug-in to greener energy

Efficiencies can be gained in cost and carbon emissions by powering lighting and temperature-controlled environments using alternative sources to fossil-fuelled gas or oil. 

Choosing a green electricity supply, either from your power supplier or opting for onsite generation, reduces emissions and enables large sites to generate energy to use or put back into the National Grid network. Warehousing facilities cover extensive square footage; in newer facilities, reinforced rooftops allow solar panel power generation systems to be installed. 

On a simpler level, using air-conditioning systems as a source of temperature control can act as an alternative to gas or oil-fueled heating. In addition, where the power supply is generated by solar or wind power, this then provides a 100% environmentally sustainable heat source.

5. Using green power for site machinery

In previous articles, I’ve looked at the use of alternative fuels for transport logistics, but the same principles are also being applied in warehouses. Electric pallet trucks, stackers and forklifts are not new technology, and many warehouse operators are using e-vehicles onsite as opposed to diesel or LPG-fueled models. 

Many thanks to Iron Mountain for supporting the content research for this blog. 

We are here to support your decarbonisation journey 

Crown Commercial Service (CCS) offers storage services through a variety of different framework agreements depending on customer requirements. In 2020, CCS launched its first-ever UK public sector Logistics and Warehousing framework agreement. 

Twenty-five suppliers were awarded framework agreements to provide a wide range of transport and warehousing services across 8 lots that were written to reflect the different categories of market specialism and public sector needs. Storage and warehousing are also available through:

Like many in the industry, our suppliers are working hard to implement new technologies and innovations to support the UK Government’s net zero pledge by reducing the impact of their warehousing activities. If you are interested in learning more about these approaches, contact the CCS framework category team to learn how to take advantage of new, greener packaging and storage spaces.

How to reduce the environmental impact of logistics in the public sector

The largest source of emissions within many supply chains can be attributed to logistics. It’s not hard to see why. 

Ours is a global economy. Many of our products contain components and raw materials sourced worldwide. The device you are using to read this article includes parts supplied by more than 200 companies in China, South Korea, Europe, Japan, India, and the United States. Often, these components must be shipped to a final assembly line – probably in Asia. 

The environmental implications of our global logistics, the transport and storage of materials and information through supply chains, cut across all sectors. Organisations committed to reducing their negative impact on the environment are looking for ways to reduce the polluting effect of their logistical operations. The public sector is no different. 

Incremental change is key to achieving environmental policy goals 

There are many ways the public sector can work with suppliers to introduce changes that lead to more environmentally-friendly operations. Fortunately, you don’t always have to make sweeping changes to see an impact. Technical innovations and expertise available now can contribute to achieving your environmental policy goals.  

This article is not an exhaustive list of suggestions, it’s a starting point. The aim is to offer some ideas to discuss with your supplier to help reduce carbon emissions in your supply and logistics chain. 

Five ways to minimise carbon emissions in public sector logistics contracts

1. Identify the carbon culprits in your logistical activities

A core principle of any procurement function is to minimise waste, which applies to carbon reduction as much as it does to finance. The ‘cost’ of goods and services is more than financial, and every product and service also comes with an environmental price tag.  

On the road to net zero logistics, buyers should consider where carbon waste can be minimised, substituting traditional products and services for alternative but equally effective, greener practices. 

Examine the different logistics and supply chain stages to understand where greenhouse gas emissions are highest. Doing so will help identify what practices and decisions are supporting that carbon price tag. For example:

  • what transport methods do you use that carry a higher emissions ticket? 
  • are there alternative ways to move pallets of supplies, materials, parts, and commodities, with minimal plastic packaging? 
  • how can you better optimise vehicle journeys when moving goods? 
  • what can you do to minimise the number of less-than-full containers and truckloads?
  • do your suppliers have carbon reduction plans in place?

A thorough audit of all stages of your supply chain can give you a more accurate figure of its carbon footprint. The good news is that minimising carbon-emitting inefficiencies often benefits the bottom line.

2. Incorporate consolidation measures

In transport, carbon efficiency goes hand-in-hand with cost efficiency. Making the most out of every mile travelled carries a cost saving in fuel and vehicle maintenance while also reducing emissions. For these reasons, simple consolidation measures are a good way for you to begin reducing your supply chain’s carbon footprint. 

There are many ways to introduce consolidation practices. The most straightforward approach is to allow the carrier to make the best use of their load space. For example, transporting a full truck, vehicle, or container load maximises value from each mile travelled, reducing overall emissions. 

Other ways you can achieve consolidation include: 

  • delivering larger full truck loads less frequently
  • reconsidering the need for dedicated transport
  • arranging to use a shared consolidation centre system with your supplier

Consolidation centres are offsite locations where inbound delivery vehicles are diverted so their cargo can be unloaded and consolidated into full truckloads or vehicle loads before onward delivery to the client. A consolidation centre decreases the volume of supply chain traffic into the delivery site and reduces the volume of congestion and associated pollution. 

Consolidation centres can be dedicated spaces or shared by multiple users. These places may also link to smaller inner-city hubs where loads are broken down before the final mile delivery, using low or zero-emission transport. As a result, you avoid additional pass-through of Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) charges.

3. Use different modes of transport

Every method of transport comes with a carbon cost: the faster the transport, the higher the carbon cost. In addition, different modes of transport produce different levels of emissions. For example, air and ocean freight can add more to your supply chain’s logistics carbon footprint. Even road and rail transport add up. 

While urgent services often require faster modes of transport such as road or air, advanced planning can allow more choice and a better balance of transportation methods. Planning ahead with your suppliers can make selecting alternative, lower-emission shipping methods possible.  

Slower and more eco-friendly shipping modes like rail and ocean freight can be considered by sharing forecast information and arranging a level of contingency stockholding. When combined with appropriate consolidation measures, the overall carbon cost is reduced further. 

4. Engage with your suppliers earlier: communication is key

In most cases, when asked, logistics providers will say the key to supporting the public sector in reducing carbon emissions lies in transparent collaboration. Opening up lines of communication early between you and your supplier can reap enormous benefits. 

Engaging with suppliers early on to communicate what service and policy requirements you need puts the supplier in a better position to prioritise your net zero ambitions. For example, bringing suppliers into early discussions before a final specification is written gives them more opportunity to suggest new technologies, innovations, and alternative approaches at a stage where more substantive operating model changes are possible and beneficial. 

Sharing your sustainability goals goes a long way to helping to dispel misconceptions that cost savings is the primary objective for the public sector.

5. Consider a longer-term contract

As a buyer, if you are looking to work with your supplier to start to reduce the negative environmental impact of your logistical operations, consider longer-term contracts. 

Longer-term contracts give suppliers more freedom and flexibility to offer innovative solutions, which may require more investment. In addition, a longer term enables the supplier to spread the expense associated with environmentally sustainable approaches. As a result, they can minimise the cost impact while ensuring the initial investment costs are recoverable. 

Longer-term contracts, as long as they are carefully managed, can offer more scope for continuous improvement and innovation, not least in achieving environmentally sustainable delivery aims. As logistics partners become more familiar with contract requirements, suggestions for further carbon efficiencies can be explored and tested.

Committed to helping reduce your logistics’ carbon footprint

Crown Commercial Service (CCS) works with a range of suppliers,  supporting public sector storage and transport requirements. These suppliers offer services to the health sector, central government, and wider public sector agencies. 

The services available from our agreements include:

Bring more power to your procurement

CCS offers you flexible solutions for public sector storage and transport needs. To find out more and take your next step, get in touch using our online form quoting ‘logistics and warehousing’ or call us on 0345 410 2222.

Explore how we can support your sustainability journey by visiting our carbon net zero page. You can also view additional articles about carbon-neutral warehousing and freight transport decarbonisation.