Procurement

Our Environmental Supply Chain Policy ensures that we source services and products that have a minimal impact on the environment. We engage with suppliers to create or improve services and products to further our progress towards sustainable development. The benefits of this approach are:

• Cost savings
• Anticipation of future costs and legislation which might impact on the management of our supply chain
• Identification and resolution of any ethical issues which arise through our supply chain

During 2001 we focused on implementing our Environmental Supply Chain Policy objectives across UK business units. A number of key stages have been achieved:

• Forming a Procurement Steering Group to ensure the procurement policy is consistently applied across the UK business.
• Development of a Supplier Environmental Assessment Questionnaire which profiles suppliers in terms of their environmental impact and business risk. This was first piloted with two key suppliers before implementation
• Inserting procurement clauses into tender documentation and new supplier contracts, to ensure suppliers are aware of our environmental policy and consider environmental issues within their business
• Training 15 key procurement managers on environmental policy and procedures to be cascaded across UK procurement teams
• Extending the environmental procurement programme to include the 60 suppliers in the UK, which potentially have the highest environmental impact.