Collaborative procurement frameworks helping institutions meet their sustainability targets

A partnership between six higher education purchasing consortia in England is helping institutions achieve their sustainability targets through collaboration on national frameworks.

Procurement England Limited (PEL) is made up of The Universities Catering Organisation (TUCO), The Energy Consortium (TEC), North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium (NEUPC), North Western Universities Purchasing Consortia (NWUPC), London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC) and Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC). TUCO and TEC are both platinum Sponsors of the EAUC.

Members of PEL have been working towards achieving the Sustainable Procurement Flexible Framework. Sustainability initiatives have become embedded into consortia agreements and frameworks, including social, economic and environmental aspects. This ultimately gives more assurance on sustainability standards and aide’s institution's sustainability objectives.

Rex Knight, Vice-Provost (Operations) at University College London and Chair of the PEL Board, says: “PEL consortia support and promote sustainability through each framework agreement. Sustainability is always part of the tender development process and many agreements include evaluation criteria specifically developed to consider the social, economic and environmental needs of the HE sector.” 

A fundamental part of the consortia is to share best practice and case studies focused on sustainable procurement in action. An example of this is EAUC silver Company Member Advanced Power Technology (APT), who supplied a system for Manchester Metropolitan University which formed part of the NEUPC led national data centre management framework. The data centre was designed to consume half the energy of its old system as well as reducing its overall carbon footprint.