Sustainable procurement

The University has continued to work towards its commitment of promoting social responsibility in its supply chains by considering environmental and social issues when purchasing goods and services.

Conflict minerals

Edinburgh became the first higher education institution in the United Kingdom to adopt a policy which aims to ensure that goods that the University procures do not contain conflict minerals. 

This expands on our commitment to ethical supply chains and to initiatives such as Electronics Watch. The policy recognises our responsibility to work collaboratively with consortia and suppliers on this important topic. 

Learn more about conflict minerals

Modern slavery

The University formalised its commitment to protecting and respecting human rights and its zero tolerance approach to slavery and human trafficking in all its forms by adopting a Modern Slavery Statement. This statement is made pursuant to Section 54, Part 6 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and sets out the steps the University has taken and will take in relation to slavery and human trafficking.

Read the modern slavery statement

Sustainable procurement duty

The introduction of new procurement legislation in April 2016 has been the major area of change in Procurement for 2015/16. Sustainability is a central feature of these regulatory changes. From June 2016, the University of Edinburgh is subject to a new Sustainable Procurement Duty, whereby the University must demonstrate that it has considered sustainability in all of its regulated purchases over £50,000. Thus, whenever anyone makes a purchase above £50,000 on behalf of the University they need to consider the way they conduct the purchase can:

• Improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of the University’s area
• Facilitate the involvement of small and medium enterprises, third sector bodies and supported businesses
• Promote innovation
• Consider fair work practices
• Offer community benefits (where the contract value is greater than £4million)

The Procurement Office is working with Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability and budget holders from different areas of the University to build on our existing sustainable procurement procedures in order to comply with this duty, as well as to meet the University’s aspirations on social responsibility, sustainability, fair trade and a business pledge.

Risks and opportunities are being analysed by stakeholders for sustainable purchasing across all the University’s spend categories, using a suite of tools provided by the Scottish Government, which we have influenced. Risks and opportunities are considered at each stage of the lifecycle from extraction of raw materials, through manufacture, logistics, use and end-of-life/re-use. 

Once this assessment is complete, the University of Edinburgh will be one of the first institutions to have used this toolset to implement the sustainable procurement duty, which will help the University to embed appropriate and consistent measures to leverage procurement to improve social, economic and environmental outcomes. Priority areas agreed by the Social Responsibility and Sustainability Committee for 2016 have been travel, food, electronic equipment and laboratory consumables, with Estates and Works prioritised for 2017.

Following the prioritisation exercise step, both a sustainability test and life cycle impact mapping are used to identify relevant and proportionate requirements and the sustainability risks and opportunities existing throughout the life-cycle of the product or service.

The Scottish Government Flexible Framework assessment tool, continues to be used by the University to assess its level of sustainable procurement overall performance and the actions required to improve. Using a standard but flexible approach helps to reveal and implement relevant steps for us to embed good procurement practice to achieve sustainable outcomes.

Learn more about fairness in trade and sustainable procurement