Sustainable procurement

The University of Nottingham is establishing sustainable procurement procedures and practices through all of its tenders and contracts. This includes questionnaires that require information, such as:

• corporate social responsibilities
• environmental policy
• Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive
• Restriction of Hazardous Substances (ROHs) Directive

Sustainable contracts

Sustainability has been incorporated into a number of major contracts, including the following.

• Water coolers ─ these are now only mains fed, reducing the environmental impact of providing bottled water as well as financial saving
• Hopper buses ─ our intercampus hopper buses reduce the use of private cars between campuses. The latest contract includes eco driver training and new lower emission diesel engines
• Printers ─ we have moved away from the use of individual printers towards multi-functional devices
• Deliveries ─ we work with our suppliers to amalgamate order information to reduce the number of vehicle movements associated with University orders
• Computers ─ our latest computer supply contract incorporates energy consumption, whole life costing and end of life options as well as a packaging take back scheme
• Food supply ─ working with catering suppliers to reduce packaging on products and move toward recyclable packaging where appropriate