Delivering Sustainability through your Suppliers

1. Delivering Sustainability through your Suppliers Jimmy Brannigan, ESD Consulting Ltd Laura Watson, Durham University Surrie Everett-Pascoe, Canon UK

2. Delivering Sustainability through your Suppliers • Drawing on learning and materials from the hugely successful ongoing sustainable procurement project this workshop will explore the huge potential offered by getting the client supplier relationship right. • This workshop will help you to make better use of your suppliers to deliver your sustainability objectives.  

3. Delivering Sustainability through your Suppliers • Agenda • 14.30 Background and introduction • 14.35 Laura Watson, Durham University • 14.55 Surrie Everett-Pascoe, Canon UK • 15.15 Discussion and questions

4. EAF Programme • Background • Three year project • Reducing negative environmental and social impacts through purchasing • Steering group, partners from Further Education and Higher Education • Training • Train the trainer • Policy and strategy development • Risk based approach to procurement • Supplier engagement • Social issues in procurement

5. Delivering Sustainability through your Suppliers • Opportunities exist at all stages of the procurement process • Identifying the need • The specification • Supplier qualification and appraisal • Tendering and tender evaluation • Contract management and contract review • Accounting

6. Life cycle impacts of an organisation Inputs Outputs Your Organisation • Information • Services • Products • Wastes • Suppliers • Energy • Materials • People Environmental and social impacts

7. Delivering Sustainability through your Suppliers Impacts and Opportunities (Environment) High Environmental Footprint Natural Resources Transportation Manufacturing Product Distribution Consumers Low Supply Chain

8. Delivering Sustainability through your Suppliers Current Management Effort (Environment) High Environmental Footprint Natural Resources Transportation Manufacturing Product Distribution Consumers Low Supply Chain

9. Delivering Sustainability through your Suppliers Mismatch between the two High Environmental Footprint Natural Resources Transportation Manufacturing Product Distribution Consumers Low Supply Chain

10. Sustainable Procurement within Durham University Presented by: Laura Watson MInstLM MCIPS Deputy Director of Procurement April 2007

11. Barriers to Sustainable Procurement • Whilst there is a high level of commitment to national targets, there is often a low level of understanding of the exact requirements, therefore creating an ‘implementation gap’ – the gap between policy and practice. • Even with a high level commitment in the shape of policies and specific targets, this becomes heavily diluted by the time it reaches the buyer. A lot of the sustainability issues are lost and replaced instead by ‘best value’ often easily translated to cheapest price. • The link needs to be made between sustainability, efficiency and cost savings.

12. Content • University Strategy; • Sustainable Procurement Policy; • Corporate and Social Responsibility Policy; • Strategically Controlled Procurement; • Collaboration; • Communication; • The Way Forward; • Tender Evaluation; • Contract Management; • Supplier Engagement; • Supplier Issues.

13. University Strategy • The University’s 5 year strategic plan has 5 specific aims, which includes becoming a sustainable institution; • University Policy for Environmental Sustainability is overseen by an Environmental Sustainability Advisory Group (ESAG); • The Procurement Policies were agreed by the University’s Executive Committee (UEC) ensuring senior management buy in.

14. Procurement Policies Sustainable Procurement Policy • Sets out the principles, policies and procedures on which sustainable procurement activity within the University will be based; • Serves to prompt staff involved in the procurement of goods and services to use sustainability as a factor in their purchasing decisions; • Created November 2005, updated end 2006. www.dur.ac.uk/treasurer/suppliers/

15. Sustainable Procurement Policy • The University’s Procurement Service will: • Encourage suppliers to develop a proactive approach to equalities; • Ensure suppliers understand the key sustainable issues so that they can tailor their products accordingly; • Ensure that Small and Medium Sized Enterprises and Ethnic Minority Businesses can bid for the business; • Help in the development of sustainable products; • Monitor the response to sustainable issues within tender documents; • Assist businesses that wish to work for the University; • Carry out a sustainable risk / impact analysis of the products / services procured.

16. Sustainable Procurement Policy • Other University Staff will develop specifications that assist in ensuring that: • Goods that can be used and disposed of in an environmentally responsible way are considered; • Items with a high recycled content are used where there is little difference in cost; • Whole-life cost and energy usage and cost is considered prior to purchase; • Advice is sought from the Procurement Service.

17. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Policy in Procurement • Impacts on the way in which we procure, thus improving our: • social, environmental and local economic impact; • influence on society, social cohesion and human rights; • fair trade and the ways in which fairness can be corrupted. • Implemented January 2007. • Sustainable Procurement is not just being environmentally friendly.

18. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Policy in Procurement • The CSR policy addresses our commitment to the way we: • Encourage our business partners to strive at matching our performance; • Act in a socially responsible way; • Continue to improving our performance and comply with all relevant legislation; • Encourage our staff to be mindful of the effect of their actions on any natural resource; • Monitor and improve our performance in these areas.

19. Procurement Services Strategic Contract Managers Faculty / Divisional Purchasing Teams Faculties Departments / Colleges Action network Line Management Strategically Controlled Procurement

20. Faculty / Divisional Purchasing Teams • Ensure that approved suppliers are used (using sustainable and environmental issues as one of the criteria). • Identify the need: • What do we want to buy? • Why do we need this product or service? • Can the need be met another way? • Is a suitable product available elsewhere in the University? • Can the requirement be met by renting, sharing rather than purchasing? • Is the quantity requested essential? • Is the specification currently used the correct one for the purpose? • Can the product serve a useful purpose after its initial use?

21. Faculty / Divisional Purchasing Teams • Challenge repeat purchases: • Assess if there are more suitable options; • The more ambitious the environmental objective the more fundamental the re-examination needs to be; • Good purchasing practice requires that fundamental questions are routinely asked about the value being delivered. • Increased demand drives the price down!

22. Collaboration • Durham County Council – reviewed their sustainable policy and fair trade status. • Durham City Council – set up a working party to review sustainability across Durham with the aim of becoming a Fair Trade city. • EAUC– Durham University became a key partner of EAUC working group and created a detailed Action Plan. • Key contacts have been made and we can benchmark against similar institutions and local organisations.

23. Communication • Currently communicating initiatives with rest of University staff and students. • Discussions with end-users to understand: • What pressures they are under; • What are their concerns; • What we want them to do differently; • How we can help. • Presentations to highlight the importance of sustainability.

24. Sphere of concern Sphere of influence Sphere of control The Way Forward • Continue to build upon current working practices. • Individuals need to focus on what they control – sphere of control. If everyone makes changes then we will have an impact.

25. Tender Evaluation • Detailed evaluation as part of tender process on CSR issues; • Evaluation on environmental issues (e.g. ISO14001) and working towards future legislation; • Evaluation provides the opportunity to apply weighting to environmental criteria; • Award criteria is linked to the subject matter; • Working on creating a balanced score-card.

26. Contract Management • Set targets related to the University’s objectives and relevant to the contract – Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s); • Encourage innovation around reducing environmental and social impacts; • Use past performance in award of new contracts; • Discuss alternative products and services with suppliers; • Joint improvement targets: • Reducing packaging weights and volumes; • Introducing reusable and returnable packaging; • Examining purchase order quantities and delivery frequency; • Improving delivery scheduling to reduce transports impacts.

27. Supplier Engagement Recycling initiatives • Waste disposal Food contracts • Delivery schedules and packaging; • Now a Fair Trade University. Travel • Campus bus service; • Agents promote rail travel; • New contract looking at carbon offsetting. Stationery • Sole supplier; • Price parity; • Environmental alternative displayed online.

28. Supplier Engagement • Print and Multi-Functional Devices (MFD) • Recycled ink cartridges and paper; • Reduced density print; • Networking MFDs: • Printing double-sided as standard; • Saves paper and energy; • Faxes will be received and sent electronically, it may not be necessary to print them; • There is a scanning function on the MFD to convert paper files into electronic ones; • Poster campaign.

29. Supplier Issues What issues do we have with existing / new suppliers?

30. Supplier Issues We want suppliers to: • Be more proactive and voluntarily tell us what they are doing on CSR issues; • Provide up to date information as things change rather than when we ask for it; • Prove that what they say they are doing is true; • Provide accreditations for products that they say are “green”; • Consider the packaging they use for products; • Inform us of how they are complying with the WEEE directive, even when they are not manufacturers; • Maintain ongoing dialogue.