Value-Based Procurement
Value-Based Procurement
Utah State Procurement focuses on best value contracts, not necessarily contacts of the cheapest cost. As part of this value focus, the State of Utah Division of Purchasing and General Services (Purchasing) has been developing a value-based procurement program. By developing this program, Utah hopes to take into greater account resiliency, risk management, due diligence and efficiency.
This program development was initiated out of meeting the needs of the State’s contract users and other customers, and not out of the requirement of legislation.
In developing an appropriate Value-Based Procurement (VBP), State Purchasing has undertaken research to help establish state benchmarks, common best practices across both states and cities, and provide specifics about key factors for successful SPP implementation.
State Purchasing Internship Program
The Utah Division of Purchasing & General Services has reinstituted its internship program. For the first time, Purchasing created a Value-Based Purchasing internship, which was co-managed by the Coordinator of Resource Stewardship. Purchasing plans to continue and expand their internship program in the coming fiscal years.
Our Latest Internship
The Utah Division of Purchasing & General Services recently hosted three high school DECA interns who developed an award-winning proposal to improve Utah Department of Corrections by exploring renewable energy implementations. The "AIR Initiative" proposes:
- 3.5-Megawatt Solar Microgrid: Transitioning the site’s energy infrastructure to rooftop solar paired with repurposed electric vehicle (EV) batteries for energy storage.
- Significant Cost Savings: Reducing the Prison’s annual energy costs by 40%, with an estimated payback period of 7 to 13 years.
- Community and Environmental Health: Addressing Utah’s severe winter inversion and air quality concerns ahead of the 2034 Winter Olympics.
- Workforce & Social Impact: Increasing staff electric vehicle (EV) charging access, reducing commuting emissions, and proposing the use of trained incarcerated individuals for project maintenance.
The interns took first place at 2026 DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC).
Sustainable Purchasing Summit
In March of 2022, the Coordinator of Resource Stewardship, in partnership with Purchasing, hosted the State of Utah’s first Sustainable Purchasing Summit as part of Purchasing’s Spring Procurement Education Partnership (PEP) with the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO).
Speakers at the first Sustainable Purchasing Summit included:
- Arizona State University
- Utah Representative Joel Briscoe
- Amazon Business
- Utah Sustainable Business Coalition (USBC)
- Utah Division of Facility Construction and Management (DFCM)
A total of 103 participants attended the Summit in-person and approximately 104 attended online through “Watch Parties” located in Davis County and St. George.
In March 2023 after receiving such positive attendance and feedback from the 2022 Summit, Purchasing hosted its second Sustainable Purchasing Summit.
Speakers included:
- Utah County Commissioner & Member of the Utah Cryptocurrency Task Force, Amelia Powers Gardner
- Weber State University
- University of Utah
- Utah State University
- University of Utah Health – Hospitals and Clinics
- Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)
- Utah Division of Facility Construction and Management (DFCM)
Attendees at these summits include city and county governments, state agencies, and other local non-profits. This allows for efficient dissemination of new procurement best practices and for procurement professionals to discuss their experiences of applying value-based procurement. It also allows State Purchasing to gauge interest in value-based procurement and develop strategies to mitigate challenges that some of our community partners and customers are experiencing during implementation.
Amazon Sustainable Purchasing Dashboard
The State of Utah’s Sustainable Purchasing Program is currently in the phase of developing baseline data that can be used to measure success over time. One example of baseline development is the State of Utah Amazon Dashboard. Beginning in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, Amazon Business implemented a Value-Based Purchasing dashboard for the State of Utah.
The dashboard allows Purchasing to drill down into the Amazon purchase data and filter out how many purchases were Climate Pledge Friendly©. Climate Pledge Friendly© highlights products that are certified by one of the sustainability certifications featured on Amazon’s certification page, or by Amazon’s own Compact by Design© certification. For fiscal year 2022 (FY22), 398, or 1% of purchases made, were Climate Pledge Friendly©.
Purchasing hopes to increase the number of Climate Pledge Friendly© purchases through education and outreach to users of the State of Utah Amazon Business account. Having a meaningful baseline will allow Purchasing to accurately measure success of its education efforts and ascertain which education messaging is most successful.
