A commercial cleaning tender is one of the easiest places to strengthen — or quietly undermine — your ESG position. The difference is in how the RFP is written. An RFP built only around price and scope selects for the lowest bidder; an ESG-aligned RFP selects for a supplier whose employment practices, supply chain, and social outcomes stand up to reporting scrutiny.
This guide sets out the six evaluation criteria every ESG-aligned cleaning RFP should include, and three common gaps that leave procurement teams exposed to modern-slavery liability or greenwashing risk.
A ready-to-use template with the six-criterion scoring matrix, weighting guidance, and a supplier profile — everything in this article in a format your team can put straight into a tender.
Ask for written confirmation that all cleaners are directly employed under the Cleaning Services Award 2020 (or a compliant enterprise agreement), plus sample redacted payslips and superannuation confirmation. Price that looks too good usually means this criterion is failing.
Require details of any subcontracting or labour hire, a modern-slavery or employment-model statement, and any history of Fair Work Ombudsman action. Each subcontracting layer reduces the visibility your reporting depends on.
Ask what measurable social outcome the contract creates. A social enterprise supplier can point to employment for people facing barriers to work; a conventional contractor usually cannot.
Confirm current public liability and workers' compensation cover, WHS policies, and site risk documentation. This is baseline, but it belongs in the scoring so it is never assumed.
Request cleaning-product and waste practices and any relevant environmental certifications. Weight this against your organisation's environmental commitments.
Ask whether the supplier can provide periodic impact and compliance reporting in a form your team can use in ESG disclosures and annual returns. Evidence you cannot report is evidence you cannot use.
An RFP that ranks price first and checks compliance later invites underpayment risk into the shortlist. Score the social and compliance criteria first, then let price decide between suppliers that already clear the bar.
Asking whether a supplier is "compliant" invites a yes. Asking for payslips, statements, and documentation invites proof. Without an evidence requirement, an RFP measures marketing, not practice.
An RFP that does not ask who actually performs the work can award a contract to a broker whose labour is invisible. Require disclosure of every layer, or exposure to modern-slavery and greenwashing risk stays hidden until it surfaces in an audit.
Score each supplier from 1 (no evidence) to 5 (strong, documented evidence) against the six criteria, then weight each score to your obligations. Organisations with mandatory modern-slavery reporting should weight award-rate employment and modern-slavery exposure most heavily; those with strong social-procurement targets should raise social-return evidence.
The point of weighting is to make the trade-off explicit. A supplier that is a few dollars cheaper but scores a 2 on employment compliance is not cheaper at all once the reporting and reputational cost is counted. A weighted matrix puts that on the page, where a procurement decision can be defended.
Below is the shape the completed matrix takes. Weightings are illustrative — set them against your own reporting obligations before you issue the RFP, not after the responses arrive.
| Criterion | Weight | Evidence that scores a 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Award-rate employment | 25% | Payslips and superannuation records for every worker on site, not a policy statement |
| Supply-chain transparency | 20% | Directly employed workforce; no labour hire or subcontracting layers to trace |
| Modern slavery controls | 20% | Documented due diligence the buyer can cite in its own statement |
| Third-party certification | 15% | Independently verified social enterprise status, not self-assessment |
| Social return evidence | 10% | Measured outcomes attributable to your contract and reporting period |
| Environmental practice | 10% | Product, waste and equipment policy with evidence of application on site |
Two columns do most of the work: the weight, which forces you to decide what matters before you can be talked into something, and the evidence column, which converts a vague criterion into a document a supplier either can or cannot produce.
Every supplier has a modern slavery policy. Far fewer can produce payroll records for the people who will actually be on your site. Write the question so that only evidence can answer it.
If a non-compliant bid stays in the comparison on price, it will win. Treat award-rate compliance as a gate that must be passed before commercial scoring begins, rather than one criterion competing against cost.
A supplier can answer every question honestly about itself and still deliver your contract through a chain you cannot see. Ask explicitly how many layers sit between the contract and the cleaner, and require notification of any change.
Social-outcome and compliance reporting is straightforward to agree during a tender and awkward to retrofit onto a signed contract. Name the reports, the fields, and the reporting period in the RFP itself.
Certifications differ in what they actually audit, and some widely cited ones say nothing about employment practices. Ask which body issued it, when, and what it covers — a credential that does not audit wages is not evidence about wages.
Any procurement, sustainability, or facilities team tendering a commercial cleaning contract — particularly organisations with modern-slavery reporting obligations or social-procurement targets.
At minimum the six covered here: award-rate employment, modern-slavery exposure, social-return evidence, insurance and compliance, environmental practices, and reporting capability. Weight them to your organisation's obligations.
Yes. We provide an employment-model statement, insurance and compliance documentation, and a supplier profile suitable for inclusion in your RFP evaluation and procurement file.
Download the RFP template above, or request our supplier documentation pack so Empower Clean can be evaluated against your criteria. We respond within one business day.
If your organisation is seeking a cleaning partner that aligns with ESG, sustainability, or social procurement objectives, we would welcome a conversation.
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