Ensuring we are clear and transparent in all that we do is a fundamental principle of responsible procurement.  This includes both how we report on our progress and impact but also how we measure and celebrate our improvements to ensure that sustainability is recognised as a key element of good procurement practice.

Impact reporting 

We measure and monitor our impact in a number of ways to reflect the range of audiences and reporting requirements. At a strategic level we feed into the University’s Annual Report and accounts.

We measured our progress as a team by benchmarking ourselves against the Flexible Framework, a specialist responsible procurement measurement tool. As part of this activity there are a great many of related initiatives, to which we contribute, and which we also measure. These include for example; local spend, use of SMEs, as well as the Procurement Value Survey and Benefits Methodology metrics for procurement that the higher education sector report against.

Sharing our learning 

We will continue to share information and experience with our colleagues across the sector as a key part of our responsible procurement journey, a journey which is evolving as the environment and sector changes. This means the focus of our activity is shifting to the demonstration of our contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Following from the University's high level report on how we are responding to the challenges facing the planet by reference to the Sustainable Development Goals we will consider how these can be adopted and integrated within our procurement activity.

Responding to the increased need for greater supply chain transparency, not least to meet the needs of the Modern Slavery Act, we will be working on a number of projects to investigate and map some of our supply chains.