Sustainable Procurement Policy
Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC) provides a co-operative procurement and contract management service for over ninety Higher and Further Education institutions across the South of England. SUPC has a significant influencing role within the Education sector and is conscious of its impact on day-to-day operations and contract management decisions. Consequently SUPC recognises the importance of promoting the principles of sustainability in all its activities. Sustainability is also high on the agenda of HEFCE and Government.
SUPC is committed to achieving environmental best practice throughout our activities by:
- Seeking to integrate sustainability into our strategies, policies and operations
- Complying with all relevant procurement and environmental legislation
- Working with the Education sector and stakeholders to share experiences and adopt best practice
- Making procurement decisions based on a balance between economic, social and environmental factors
Tendering and Contract Management
- Taking into consideration environmental aspects and whole life costs when tendering, where possible
- Raising awareness of sustainable criteria with all bidders and ensuring that sustainability criteria are incorporated into tender documents and awarded framework agreements, where legally appropriate
- Ensuring that suppliers are made aware of the SUPC Environmental & Sustainability Policy
- Actively encouraging small and medium enterprises (SMEs), local suppliers and specialist suppliers in the tendering process.
- Encouraging all suppliers to adopt environmentally sensitive policies and procedures
- Working with suppliers, and in turn the whole supply chain, to encourage improvements in their environmental credentials and performance
- Working with our suppliers to ensure the best use of natural resources and help develop and promote new sustainable products and services
- Encouraging and embedding supplier sustainability throughout the contract management processes
- Monitoring and measuring supplier sustainable performance in key areas
SUPC
- Promoting the prudent use of natural resources and the minimisation of waste
- Exploring opportunities for reuse and recycling of materials as appropriate
- Helping and supporting SUPC members with sustainability issues, through training and SUPC Commodity and Project Groups
- Encouraging the use of sustainable transport for staff and members involved in SUPC operations
- Communicating and promoting this policy to our staff and members; encouraging them to carry out their activities in a sustainable manner
This Policy is available to all parties and will be regularly reviewed.
SUPC members can find out more from the Sustainability Advisory Group webpages.