For the University of Bath, sustainability is about conducting our activity (our research, our education, our operations and our engagement) in a way which embodies and addresses:

• environmental health and climate action
• social responsibility, equity and inclusion
• economic and financial sustainability

Sustainable procurement is a critical part of making our activities more sustainable.

Like many organisations, a significant amount of our expenditure is with the supply chain and sustainable procurement is a key enabler for achieving our sustainability goals. It also has a number of key benefits for those who adopt it:

• decreased costs – reducing our waste and energy by utilising more sustainable practices
• improved reputation – enhancing our organisation’s compliance with regulation and environmental laws
• reducing our risks – by protecting the organisation against shortage in supply and ensure a flexible supply chain

However, there are numerous challenges in addressing the sustainability of our supply chain: variability in the quality of sustainability management practices; limited data; and the need for a proportional approach.

Defining sustainable procurement

Sustainable Procurement is defined as ‘a process whereby an organisation meets their needs for goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis in terms of generating benefits not only to the organisation, but also to society and the economy, whilst minimising damage to the environment’ (The UN Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable Public Procurement).

At the University of Bath, we are committed to procuring goods, services, works and utilities responsibly, in a way that enhances and protects our environment, society, and economy. Our Sustainable Procurement Policy has been established to detail our approach to meeting this commitment and in doing so, ensure alignment with the University of Bath’s Procurement Strategy and our institutional sustainability objectives and commitments.

The purpose of this policy is to confirm the scope, the principles and targets, and the management arrangements which we will adopt as part of our approach to sustainable procurement.

Scope

Implementation of the Sustainable Procurement Policy is the collective responsibility of all staff and suppliers to the University. All procurement activity, including goods, services and works, irrespective of value, should comply with the principles set out in this policy.

That said, it is also important that we take a proportional approach to the way in which we address sustainable procurement. For products and services which carry greater sustainability risks and impacts, we will adopt greater weight to our procurement methods.

Staff should embed the relevant aspects of sustainability when developing a specification of their requirements and include the relevant evaluation criteria related to sustainability when selecting suppliers. Guidance and training will be provided in order to support our staff.

Suppliers should endeavour to deliver their goods, services and works in a way that demonstrably supports the relevant elements of this policy, achieving continuous improvement in their operations. They should also move toward lowering the lifecycle carbon footprint of the goods and services that they supply.

Core principles

In addressing sustainable procurement, the University will aim to address the following core principles:

We will achieve value for money on a whole life basis

• Promoting whole life cost assessment, where feasible, in order to establish the impact of a product or service over its lifetime
• Adopting lifecycle carbon assessments for certain high value, high impact products where feasible (such as for construction materials) to ensure that this is considered in the procurement approach

We will reduce the impact of goods, services and works

• Reducing the impact of goods, services, works and utilities on the climate, on biodiversity, on the environment
• Promoting responsible consumption of purchased goods and services, consuming less where we can
• Using our influence with our suppliers and partners to procure more sustainable goods, services and works
• Reviewing the social impact of our products and services, in line with our social impact and community engagement policies (such as our Civic Agreement) and modern slavery statement
• Ensuring responsible disposal of purchased goods following the waste hierarchy

We will work collaboratively to support more sustainable practices

• Encouraging our suppliers to share their performance data (including their carbon footprint)
• Working with our suppliers to identify and improve unsustainable practices
• Where appropriate, working with our major suppliers to develop and share policies relating to best social and environmental practices
• Collaborating with suppliers to reduce the University’s carbon footprint
• Working alongside our higher education and national consortia partners to align and strengthen our sustainable procurement practices.

Where appropriate, we will align our approach to established standards

Assess potential suppliers on their social and environmental policies and conformity to established standards.

We will conduct our business activities in a fair and transparent manner with honesty and integrity

• Undertake regular reviews as part of managing the policy
• Provide an annual report setting out progress

Goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

The Goals established in this policy focus on measuring actions rather than impacts. This reflects the quality of performance data which we currently have and the need to encourage more data through the NetPositive Net Zero tool.

Implementation

In meeting our core objectives, the University of Bath will adopt the following measures:

• for tendered procurement exercises (working between the Sustainability and Procurement teams), we will conduct a sustainability impact assessment (including a whole life cost assessment) when tendering to help identify where the procurement of the respective product, service, or works will have an impact, and consequently include mitigating actions within the tender
• we will prepare and provide training to all procurement practitioners on how they can implement the Sustainable Procurement Policy
• we will provide sustainable procurement guidance for all procurement practitioners
• we will work collaboratively with suppliers to improve sustainability performance and encourage sustainable commitments in the delivery of goods, services and works to the University
• we will regularly review progress against our targets and provide an annual report to the University
• we will publish a Modern Slavery statement annually detailing our commitment to combatting modern slavery in our supply chains
• we will include a minimum 10% weighting to sustainability related evaluation criteria when tendering for goods, services or works and this may include adding all or part of the weighting to the ‘price’ criteria where a whole life costing approach is used
• we will use a set of standard terms and conditions that include fair payment terms to our suppliers and our supply chains and require compliance with relevant legislation, such as:
  • The Modern Slavery Act 2015
  • The Late Payment of Commercial Debt Regulations 2013
  • Equality Act 2010
  • The Bribery Act 2010

Governance

This policy will be jointly managed by the Procurement team and the Sustainability team. They are jointly responsible for the implementation, delivery, and future review of this policy. They will review the Policy and progress against the KPIs on a quarterly basis. An annual report will be prepared for review by the Sustainability and Climate Action Steering Group and University Executive Board (UEB).