Five steps to using TCO Certified in procurement

Using TCO Certified in procurement can be as easy as citing it in your procurement language. Simply plugging the certification into your policies and specifications will give you access to products that are independently verified to meet a broad scope of up-to-date sustainability criteria, covering both environmental and social sustainability. However, taking a more strategic approach to your organization’s sustainability goals will help you influence suppliers in additional ways.

Get internal buy-in by collaborating with decision-makers and specialists from other departments. Explain the benefits of purchasing more sustainable IT products. Ensure that TCO Certified is included in relevant policy documents, and check your product portfolio in our Product Finder. You may find that some of the products you use today are already certified according to TCO Certified.

Involve suppliers early. Use pre-competitive dialogs, such as Requests for Information (RFIs), to gather information from suppliers and start the conversation. Be clear with your intention to specify TCO Certified in good time to allow brands to apply for certification and go through all the steps in the certification process.

Specify TCO Certified for all relevant product categories and make supplying certified models a requirement of complying with your terms. Also, specify that delivered products must maintain “an active TCO Certified certificate for the duration of the whole contract period”. This is important, particularly if the manufacturer updates the product model during that time.

Communicate regularly with your vendors to ensure continued availability of certified products as models are refreshed, or a new generation of TCO Certified is released. Check the certification status of your product portfolio in our Product Finder.

Measuring your progress is key to ensuring your procurement program has the impact you want. Make sure you use reliable data in reporting. Industry self-declarations and other unverified product claims lead to a high risk of greenwashing. Our Product Finder offers independently verified sustainability data for every model we certify.

The full guide to sustainable IT purchasing with TCO Certified includes 35+ tips and a handy checklist.