Sustainable and ethical procurement
Sustainable procurement
At Birmingham City University (BCU), we ensure that sustainability is embedded in our procurement process. In July 2018, we achieved Level 4 of the Flexible Framework for Sustainable Procurement, confirmed by an audit conducted by NetPositive Futures assessing BCU’s performance against the Flexible Framework. This provides a structured approach to integrate sustainability into our procurement process.
We are currently in the process of refining our Procurement Strategy with sustainability in mind. We have embedded a Sustainability Impact Analysis into our procurement process, requiring staff to outline the positive and negative environmental, social and economic impacts to then be addressed in the tender process.
Birmingham City University also has a Sustainable Supplier Toolkit which is available for all of our suppliers to use. The toolkit allows suppliers to develop their own sustainability action plans to reduce the impacts of the service and/or goods they are providing. Information will be uploaded to our online real-time dashboard, so we can track any issues or actions needed.
Birmingham City University staff can find out more about our procurement process at the following iCity pages.
Ethical procurement
Historically organisations have made purchasing decisions primarily by considering the price and quality of goods. Increasingly, however, people are realising that in order to ensure that we do not compromise the needs of future generations we need to make sustainable purchasing decisions now. That means considering not just economic and quality issues but also looking at environmental issues such as what products are made of and where they are from, and social issues such as how they are made and the human rights of workers.
Birmingham City University procures large amounts of goods and services annually and takes seriously its responsibility for making responsible purchasing decisions. We are committed to considering economic, environmental and social issues in all our purchasing decisions and we are working with our staff and suppliers in order to facilitate the ease with which this can be done. We will consider whether products are fit for purpose and value for money, whether they are ethically sourced, the quantities of recycled materials vs raw materials they contain, whether they are energy efficient during use and whether they can be easily repaired, reused or recycled at the end of their life.
To this end, at the start of a Procurement activity, all Stakeholders involved in the process are requested to complete a Declaration of Interest form in relation to the potential tenderers. The stakeholder must also advise if a conflict arises following the notification of final respondents. In addition, tenderers are requested to declare any conflict of interest with the University as part of their tender submission.
BCU has been awarded Fairtrade University status. This means that as a University we have:
- A Fairtrade Policy in place
- Fairtrade products are made available for sale in all campus shops and catering outlets
- Fairtrade products are served at all meetings and events hosted by BCU and the SU
- Run communications and campaigns to increase the understanding of Fairtrade
- Fairtrade is included as an item in our Environmental Committee meetings
Download our Sustainable Procurement Policy
Ethical investment
We believe that the University’s investment should reflect our ethical values, taking into account our responsibility for social, environmental, ethical and financial factors in any investment decision. We have an approved Ethical Investment Policy, which outlines our approach to management of funds to minimise the risk of investment in areas that conflict with our core values.