The way we procure items and spend our money can make a big difference to improving the sustainability of our organisation, with wider impacts on our supply chain. We are a member of the North Eastern University Purchasing Consortium (NEUPC) as well as an affiliate member of Electronics Watch.
Within our Campus Management Climate Action Policy we are committed to 'Promote and monitor sustainable procurement practices that manage social, economic and environmental impacts of purchases and develop a method for measuring embedded carbon within the University’s supply chain'.
Our measures and targets
2018/19 Scope 3 Baseline footprint
27,224,361 kg CO2e
2023/24 Most recent completed footprint
39,067,460 kg CO2e
43.50% increase (22.53% decrease projected)
Target to halve scope 3 emissions by 2030
Procurement is the largest section on the University’s scope 3 footprint. Using the Higher Education Supply Chain Emissions tool, it has been estimated at almost 4 times the size of the University’s combined Scope 1 and 2 emissions. This includes central procurement, information communication and technology, maintenance as well as food and catering. The University’s long-term target is to achieve net zero in Scope 3 emissions by 2050 and to have made significant progress by 2038.
So far three years’ worth of data has been mapped in the Campus Management Monitoring Tool and emissions have been estimated according to spend. These demonstrate a wide variation attributable to various essential activity, whilst it is positive this is now being more fully mapped, a few more years data collection and analysis will provide a more accurate picture.
Procurement across the University presents a large challenge due to the size of activity and number of stakeholders making purchases across all departments. It requires both behavioural and cultural change across the whole organisation and cannot be mitigated by a single workstream or Directorate. There is a need to influence practices and alternative approaches to commit to carbon and ethically responsible decisions, whilst moving towards holistic assessment of supply chains embedding full lifecycle implications into decision-making.
Objectives
Key objective to achieve over the 2025/26 year is:
Work with the Procurement Team in improving the data provision from University suppliers and systems to more accurately inform our Scope 3 footprint and positioning.
