Responsible Procurement

What is sustainable procurement?

Sustainable procurement is to procure goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money whilst taking into consideration the whole life cost. The aim is to generate benefits not only for Queen Mary, but also to the society and economy, whilst minimising the damage to the environment. 

The sustainability impacts are focussed on 3 key areas: Environment, Social and Economic.

Queen Mary Sustainable Procurement Policy

The Sustainable Procurement policy “sets out Queen Mary’s commitment to ensuring relevant goods, services and works are procured in a way that considers their value o whole-life basis, whilst ensuring related economic, societal and environmental impacts are positive. It provides a framework for establishing responsible procurement objectives and targets, and key performance indicators”

The full list of initiatives to support the implementation of the Sustainable Procurement Policy can be found within the policy, however to extract and highlight a few as per below: 

• Include sustainable procurement as part of the Queen Mary’s efforts to working towards an Energy and Environmental Management System (ISO50001).
• Ensure suppliers are compliant with relevant current and reasonably foreseeable future environmental legislation
• Actively encourage supplier selection processes adhere to sustainable policies and practices.
• Specify, wherever reasonably practicable, carbon reducing, energy saving and the broader use of sustainable materials and products as preferred options.
• Ensure UK based suppliers are compliant with the Modern Slavery Act 2015
• Minimise the amount of waste generated from purchases by encouraging suppliers to re-use or recycle packaging or used items. This includes considering lease options where appropriate as an alternative to ‘purchase’ in order to reduce waste.

Copy of the full document of the Sustainable Procurement Policy is available in the following link:

EMS-P-04 v4 Sustainable Procurement Policy (1) [PDF 78KB]

Training

Procurement has made available a range of online courses via the HEPA (Higher Education Procurement Association) e-learning platform. Online training on Sustainable Procurement (Introduction and Advanced levels) are available free of charge to all staff. 

Guidance on how to access the e-learning platform is available here:

http://qm-web.finance.qmul.ac.uk/purchasing/training/

What are Queen Mary’s Priorities?

To identify products or commodities which have high sustainability impact based on spend, risk and influence, Queen Mary uses DEFRA (Department of Environmental, Rural and Agricultural Affairs) Sustainable Prioritisation Tool.

The top 5 areas of spend as shown in the below Sustainable Prioritisation Tool graph below are:

1. Construction and Buildings
2. Food and Catering
3. Uniforms, Workwear and Textiles
4. Cleaning Supplier and Services
5. IT Hardware and Equipment

Sustainable Procurement Initiatives

The Procurement Team works proactively with staff across the University, to ensure that the Sustainability Agenda is being considered when making purchasing decisions. This is carried out via:

1. Sustainable Procurement Group

• The Sustainable Procurement Groups acts as the primary governance body to direct and monitor our on-going sustainable procurement performance. It is charged with working with Queen Mary staff and students to promote and encourage environmentally, socially and ethically responsible procurement throughout the University.
• The group is composed of Procurement Team and Estates and Facilities Sustainability Team.

2. Embedded Sustainability criteria’s into the Tendering Process

• Specify, wherever reasonably practicable, carbon reducing, energy saving and the broader use of sustainable materials and products as preferred options.
• Actively encourage supplier selection processes adhere to sustainable policies and practices.
• Review, identify and manage sustainable procurement risks at all stages of the procurement process for relevant goods and services.
• Encourage the use of suitable local suppliers for products or services.
• Ensure UK based suppliers are compliant with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 though declaration in the tender submission.

How to report any concerns?

Queen Mary encourages the reporting of concerns relating to sustainability.

If you have any concerns please contact Procurement at finance-procurement@qmul.ac.uk