Taking Action

Benchmarking council's current purchasing situation will inform and direct council’s overall direction, goals and priorities in the Action Plan. To do this, council can use the Self Assessment Matrix [PDF, 268KB] or the more detailed Gap Analysis Tool [DOC, 408KB]. Remember to involve all staff with purchasing responsibilities in the process, preferably through an internal whole-of-council working group, or through meetings, briefings or memos. 

Council's goals and priorities for sustainable purchasing should: 

• Be developed internally with the input of all staff with purchasing responsibilities
• Respond to the gaps identified through the gap analysis or matrix
• Fit into councils' strategic plans and directions
• Are achievable and measurable within set time frames

One process council could use is to imagine as a group what a sustainable purchasing future what would it look like for your council. Using this vision, identify council’s goals, breaking them down into objectives that act as steps along the way.

Make sure your goals relate to the five areas or organisational influence identified in the gap analysis and self-assessment matrix tool, ideally giving preference to the biggest gaps.

Alternatively, some councils have found that goals are not as important to them as the actions, or that they don't fit well into councils' strategic planning framework. In which case, this step is not as important; however it is still worth making sure everyone in council is on the same page.

Action Plans are usually internal working documents with background information and prioritised actions to increase the sustainability of councils' procurement. To write your Action Plan:

1. Incorporate the development of the Action Plan into relevant staff workloads

2. Use the Action Plan Template [DOC, 1MB], which outlines how to:

• Incorporate background information and develop goals
• Choose actions to achieve these goals using the Example Actions Table [PDF, 384KB] and/or the Example Action Plans
• Identify staff responsibilities for actions
• Set priorities, timelines, and budget figures (where possible) for actions
• Establish a timeframe for review.

3. Many councils find that having a meeting or workshop (or two) to identify the actions, responsibilities, priorities and so on is extremely worthwhile.

4. Check over your draft Action Plan using the Self-Verification Checklist [PDF,84KB] and circulate it to all relevant council staff for comment before finalising.

5. Have your mayor, council or CEO/General Manager sign off on the goals objectives and actions, and commit to the review period.

As council progressively implements actions from its Action Plan, ensure you:

• Build tasks/actions into relevant staff/unit work schedules
• Incorporate actions into council budgets as relevant
• Progressively build the business case for action within council
• Regularly identify opportunities for new actions through the monitoring and review process
• Work with other councils and stakeholders to implement actions
• Build political support by keeping councillors up to date
• Keep abreast of innovative product developments and broader developments in your state or territory

The final milestone is to review your Action Plan, identify remaining gaps and priorities and re-strategise for the future. To complete Milestone 5, download and work through the four easy steps in the Review and Re-Strategise Toolkit [PDF, 596KB]:

1. Review your Sustainable Purchasing Action Plan
2. Identify Remaining Gaps & Priorities
3. Identify New Actions
4. Prepare a Sustainable Purchasing Progress Report [DOC, 196KB]

This process will enable councils to benchmark against their original gap analysis by repeating the self-assessment matrix.  By doing so, council can identify the areas of improvement which can be useful for reporting achievements, and identify the remaining gaps, thereby assisting councils to target action to the priority areas. Identifying new actions and reporting them to council ensures council continues to improve its sustainable purchasing situation into the future.