Sustainable procurement practices for education
Good practice
Greener or more sustainable procurement principles can reduce the environmental impact of the goods you purchase and could reduce your costs.
The main theme of green procurement is to consider the life cycle of products as a whole, not just their purchase price. This includes thinking about the:
- materials used in manufacture
- methods of production and embedded energy
- energy use of the product over its life span
- eventual disposal costs and environmental impacts
- potential for re-use or recycling.
You can apply the same principles to a range of goods which are commonly used in the education sector.
Consider using supplies of foodstuff from local suppliers and developing a sustainable food procurement policy.
Further information
General links
EAUC has created a Responsible Procurement Group which is open to all organisations in the Higher or Further Education sectors.
find out more at: EAUC and HEPA Responsible Procurement Group
- Sustainable procurement for the Higher Education sector: The Cost of Net Zero
- EAUC: Standardised Carbon Emissions Framework
- GOV.UK: Sustainable public procurement
- Forum for the Future: Purchasing for sustainability
- EAUC: Green Directory of sustainable goods and services
- Commission of the European Communities: Green Procurement handbook (Adobe PDF - 532KB)
- Sustainability Exchange: Higher education environmental performance improvement
- WWF: Responsible sourcing of forest products
Construction and buildings links
- The Energy Consortium: Project manager's guide to energy and water efficiency in buildings (Adobe PDF - 6.52MB)
- Building Research Establishment: Sustainable construction
- Scotland's Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation fund
Sustainable food procurement links
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