Sustainable Procurement

The University’s Procurement Policy aims to mitigate the effects that the University’s activities have on the environment, and to use our purchasing power to create a positive impact. To achieve this, we will:

• Support local skills and capabilities.
• Reduce direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions across our sites and projects under our control.
• Embed zero waste thinking in all aspects of our operations and supply chain.
• Aim to procure products directly or through our supply chain from recognised responsible sources.
• Audit the University’s spending to identify and, where possible, encourage best practice across our supply chains.
• Encourage and persuade suppliers to operate better production processes, supply more environmentally friendly products and help spread improvements throughout the supply chain.
• Provide guidance and training to encourage staff involved in purchasing to adopt more sustainable purchasing policies to reduce costs and the environmental impact of goods and services we buy.
• Consider suppliers’ environmental performance and whole life costs.

Sustainable Procurement Action Group

Working towards reducing the environmental impact of the goods and services the University buys, the Sustainable Procurement Action Group helps improve organisational procurement choices. This group is working on promoting the reuse of equipment, furniture and items through the Warp It platform. It is also working on developing guidance on embedding circular economy principles within all purchasing decisions.