Sustainable Procurement

APUC aims to be a leader, on behalf of its client institutions, in driving forward the sustainable procurement agenda, delivering best value for institutions whilst being committed to embedding and effecting advanced sustainable procurement. APUC shall, with the help of its client institutions' collaborative buying power, strive to bring about positive impacts on supply chain sustainability, reaching as far into its supply chain as reasonably possible.

Our aim is to exceed the normal definition of Sustainable Procurement by carrying out the procurement of goods and services in such a manner as to minimise any negative environmental, ethical, economic or social impact, and promote positive impacts and change, throughout the whole life cycle and supply chain of the goods or services, in order to fulfil current needs without lessening the ability of future generations to do the same.

APUC takes Sustainable Procurement seriously and is working hard to ensure a fully assessed and sustainable supply chain.

You can track our plans and progress below.


CONSULT We have a Supply Chain Sustainability Consultation Group, consisting of Procurement and Sustainability professionals from institutions, plus student representatives from groups including NUS and People and Planet.
The Group consults and agrees on the policies and processes APUC prepares.
  
POLICY APUC (in consultation with the Group) has published a Supply Chain Sustainability Policy, outlining our vision and objectives
  
CODE OF
CONDUCT		 We have published our Supply Chain Code of Conduct, outlining the environmental, social, ethical and economical standards APUC shall adhere to, and expect its Suppliers to adhere to.
  
STRATEGY Our Supply Chain Review and Audit Strategy provides an overview of the steps we will take at pre-qualification and tender stages of contracting, and then at post contract award, in order to enhance the level of sustainability in our supply chain, and identify and mitigate supply chain risks.
  
TRAINING All of our core procurement staff have been trained in applying the UN Marrakech Prioritisation model, looking at the possible impact, risk, scope and influence of their relevant commodity categories for sustainable procurement issues
  
PRE-TENDER Our Supply Chain Review and Audit Strategy provides an overview of the steps we will take at pre-qualification and tender stages of contracting, and then at post contract award, in order to enhance the level of sustainability in our supply chain, and identify and mitigate supply chain risks.
Procurement managers can carry out a priorisation exercise to understand areas of concern ( template) and how to address these through their tender process.
  
TENDER
PHASE		 APUC is working to strengthen and broaden the questions used in its pre-qualification and tender stages. We will review and update our list of mandatory questions, and provide guidance on other types of questions that can be used during tender to investigate the suppliers sustainability compliance further.
Sustainability category guides are in development.
  
POST
AWARD		 APUC shall 'Prioiritse' all of its existing collaborative agreements in order to prioritise suppliers to be assessed on its sustain audit tool.
  
AUDIT
WEBSITE		 APUC has developed an interactive website which allows our supply base to be assessed against our Code of Conduct. Responses will be verified by SA 8000 advanced auditors and further investigations carried out where required. Summary results will be available to view on the website as and when completed.
  
CLOSED
LOOP		 Assessed suppliers will be re-assessed on a regular basis.
New agreements will be added and assessed as determined by prioritisation.
Commodity Category Prioritisations will be revisited on a regular basis.