Sustainable Procurement Policy Statement
Overall Aim
The Company is committed to ensuring the goods and services it purchases:
- Are manufactured, delivered, used and disposed of in an environmentally and socially responsible manner and
- Deliver long term value for money for the company and our customers as a whole
We have built our corporate objectives to include sustainability and consultation with key stakeholders to continually develop our Sustainable Development Strategy.
Key sustainability objectives
Buying more sustainably offers whole life cost savings, supports our commitment to environmental and social good and safeguards our reputation as a sustainable, responsible company. To ensure we continue to maintain that position, we actively seek improvements in:
- The energy mix that reduces fossil fuel usage and minimises negative climate impact
- Reducing the use of hazardous materials
- Reducing waste
- Protects biodiversity
- Complying with current and anticipating future legislation
- Lead on the design of future operating models and legislation – including participating in consultations on plastics, carbon reduction and circular economy
- Develop and deploy science based targets for improvement
- Go beyond Net Zero and aim for Negative emissions while balancing financial sustainability
The company will define measures relating to each of these objectives.
Scope
This policy applies to all capital and operational purchasing activities and within the company.
Key Policy Principles
To support our spend analysis and work planning, we will establish a process to assess the following criteria at sub-category level:
- Level of spend
- Level of contract renewal activity
- Key suppliers by type and location. Preference shall be given to minimised transportation and packaging emission footprints
- Level of risk against each sustainability objective
- Scope for improvement
- 25% minimum sustainability scoring
- Outcome-based Procurement and engagement
This will be used to prioritise sub-categories for sustainability improvement activities.
Public Tenders
Social Value and Carbon reporting was defined in PPN 06/20 and PPN 06/21. The Company recognises these are weak guidelines that can be used by unscrupulous suppliers to hide climate impacts from buyers. We also recognise the likelihood that the minimum 10% threshold will achieve a materially more sustainable procurement profile, is low.
The company commits to go beyond the minimum standard of 10% and recognises that UK Government may not be sufficiently skilled in its understanding of total sustainability. The Company shall always recognises the need to place resources where they are most impactful and recognises a conflict between the reality of ineffectual or harmful public procurement strategy and public procurement participation.
To meet our objectives, environmental impact shall take precedent over public procurement participation. The company recognises the need for public sector to learn from its mistakes and that its feedback can be part of that learning. Where practicable, and presented in good faith, the compamny shall, at its discretion furnish public buyers with contructive feedback on the company’s withdrawal of interest.
Demand Review
Prior to any tender process, buyers will review the aggregate requirement to optimise volume, scale, costs and minimise environmental impact.
Buyers will establish:
- there is a genuine operational need for the purchase,
- all cost effective opportunities for products to be shared, upgraded, refurbished, leased or delivered as a service have been exploited,
- the product will be used efficiently, minimising waste
- prioritise circular economies over disposal, especially through our own operations
Innovation & Supplier Development
Sustainability is a key aspect of our commitment to innovation.
We will prioritise key suppliers with the highest spend and sustainability impacts for targeted supplier development activities. These will be give senior management support and focus on continuous improvement and tangible delivery of sustainability benefits throughout the supply chain.
We will work with suppliers to explore service-based contracts for products to reduce their whole life costs and environmental impacts.
We will encourage suppliers to partner and propose innovations to sustainability and strive to offer innovative and cost effective sustainable solutions.
Training and Implementation
Sustainable Procurement will be incorporated in to the induction, job descriptions, objectives and recruitment criteria for all relevant staff and the source planning and contract management processes.
Communication & Reporting
To communicate this policy to suppliers, buyers will include a link to this Sustainable Procurement Policy as an appendix to all Invitations to Tender. This is also publicly available through our OpenPolicy initiative.
We recognise suppliers whose products and services offer the greatest sustainability improvements.
Policy Development
This policy will be reviewed on an annual basis.