Sustainable Procurement is defined as a process whereby organisations meet their needs for goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis in terms of generating benefits not only to the organisation, but also to society and the economy, whilst minimising damage to the environment.
The NHS has a very large external impact as a major buyer of goods and services from local, national and international economies and as such, has a major opportunity to improve economic, environmental and social sustainability. Our aim is to support the NHS by realising opportunities for sustainable development through procurement and ultimately delivering sustainable value to the NHS. Our service is designed to ensure:
- Resilience is built into the system
- Critical supplies do not run out
- Supply is managed efficiently and sustainably
- Adaptability is built into the system
- A sustainable approach to waste management saving money and reducing environmental impacts
- Good social and ethical practices within our operations and supply chain
We aim to reduce the social and environmental impacts from the purchase, use, and disposal of the products we procure. We seek to promote and maintain high standards of social, ethical and environmental conduct across our procurement activities and work with our suppliers to make sure they also adopt this approach.
The following pages set out our policies and principle to support us in procuring sustainable goods and services.
