Local Government Procurement (LGP) has partnered with its source-to-contract provider, OneAdvanced, to launch a digital ESG assessment capability that helps New South Wales’ 128 councils identify verified suppliers offering circular economy products and services.
The tool, developed by LGP’s Strategic Procurement Solutions (SPS) team, has completed its first phase, scoring suppliers on their circular economy performance and feeding the results directly into procurement and contract management systems, replacing a time-consuming and disconnected manual survey process.
More than 1,000 suppliers across LGP’s contract panels were invited to take part in the inaugural assessment, with more than 600 responses received – around double the participation of earlier assessment processes.
Suppliers were required to submit certifications and other evidence to support their sustainability claims.
Once validated by LGP, suppliers receive a “circular economy recognition” filter tag, allowing councils to easily identify verified suppliers within the platform.
LGP and OneAdvanced have worked together since 2013, with OneAdvanced’s source-to-contract platform underpinning LGP’s supplier and contract management operations.
The new assessment was built by extending existing capabilities within that platform rather than establishing a separate system.
Dr Hadi Vandchali, Consultant, ESG and Procurement Services at LGP, said councils face growing pressure to embed circular economy principles into procurement, particularly around waste reduction, refuse and recycling.
“Councils increasingly want to integrate circular economy principles into procurement, but one of the biggest challenges has been identifying suppliers that genuinely offer verified circular solutions,” he said.
“Through this partnership with OneAdvanced, we have transformed a manual sustainability assessment into a strategic, data-driven capability that helps councils make more informed procurement decisions.
“Importantly, we are not just identifying a challenge facing the sector. We are actively creating a solution that helps address it.”
LGP Sustainable Procurement Analyst Abhijith Suresh said consolidating supplier data into a single system had improved reporting and engagement.
“Previously, supplier responses were captured separately from supplier records, creating a time-consuming process involving manual data consolidation, validation and reporting,” he said.
“By bringing everything into a single source of truth, we have moved from a reactive process to a proactive capability. We can now analyse supplier performance, sustainability credentials and supporting evidence from one location and generate insights far more efficiently.”
Abhijit Roy, IT Business Analyst at OneAdvanced, said the build drew on data already held by the platform.
“By leveraging the rich supplier and contract data already held within the platform, we were able to build an integrated assessment and reporting framework that gives LGP and councils far greater visibility into supplier sustainability capabilities,” he said.
“The ability to combine supplier assessments, supporting evidence and dashboard reporting within a single environment has created a scalable foundation that can support future ESG initiatives.”
LGP and OneAdvanced plan to extend the assessment framework into other ESG areas, including social procurement, Indigenous supplier engagement, modern slavery, carbon emissions and broader sustainability reporting.
Dr Vandchali said the value would come from embedding ESG into procurement processes rather than treating it as a standalone reporting exercise.
“The focus should not simply be on digitising an existing process,” he said.
“The real value comes from integrating ESG requirements into procurement, contract management and reporting so organisations can generate meaningful insights and ongoing value for councils and their citizens.”
Adam Bowles, Country Director for Australia at OneAdvanced, said the project reflected a broader shift towards embedding sustainability into procurement decision-making.
“This partnership with LGP demonstrates the value of integrating sustainability objectives directly into procurement processes rather than treating ESG reporting as a standalone activity,” he said.
“As local councils face increasing expectations around sustainability reporting and supplier governance, providing structured, scalable and evidence-based supplier assessment capabilities will become increasingly important.”
