Sustainable procurement

Let a removals and relocations contract specifically targeted on re-use. This ensures all furniture fittings and equipment no longer required by the University are first sent to re-use rather than recycling. This is in line with the principles of the waste hierarchy.

Let a new water coolers contract to replace, where possible, the existing plastic-bottle-fed water coolers with mains-fed water. The contract also saw the replacement of plastic disposable cups with reusable cups.

Let a stationery contract to a supplier, which offered 223 sustainable features (the highest of all bidders) across the top 100 purchased products. They also provided a ‘sustainable basket of goods’. This contract encourages staff to buy items with sustainable features and converts products to sustainable alternatives at the checkout.

We ask companies tendering for new contracts to show how they can add value and enhance student experience in various ways. These could include providing work experience and learning materials, running workshops and providing opportunities for students to visit state-of-the-art facilities.

We have introduced and rolled out a supplier sustainability tool which helps us understand and monitor how our suppliers are managing their full supply chains. We can use this information to identify where sustainable and ethical improvements can be made. We then work with suppliers to address opportunities and comply with the Modern Slavery Act.

We procured a travel contract to more accurately measure our carbon footprint.

We became affiliate members of Electronics Watch, an organisation championing responsible public procurement. As a result, we built their specific terms and conditions into our IT contracts.