Sustainable Futures in the Built Environment to 2050

10Sustainable Procurement

John Connaughton and Will Hughes

10.1 Introduction

Around the world, construction is a significant industrial sector, typically accounting for 5–15% of GDP, depending on the stage of economic development in any particular country. Construction is a relatively labour‐intensive process and the sector employs a similarly significant proportion of the economically active population (UNEP, 2007). It is also a major consumer of raw materials and a generator of waste. Notably, the sector accounts for some 40–50% of total world resource consumption by volume, including some 30% of global timber consumption (UNEP, 2007).

In recent years there has been a good deal of attention devoted to improving the sustainability of construction output. However, sustainability in the construction sector is seen principally in terms of the energy performance of buildings and their effect on the well‐being of users and occupants. The emphasis is typically on designing (and, to a lesser extent, constructing) the built environment to reduce its reliance on greenhouse gas (GHG)‐producing energy sources. While some attention has been paid to the procurement of material resources for construction, including, for example, the sustainable procurement of timber (Auld et al., 2008), the procurement of other resources, including labour, and the wider role that procurement has in supporting more sustainable construction and development has attracted less interest.

Procurement is a wide‐ranging ...