15 November 2017 Matt Sisson, Projects and Membership Manager
For any university wanting to improve its sustainability, here’s a great story from the University of Manchester: “Last week, we held our first ever awards ceremony to celebrate the responsible practices of our suppliers at The University of Manchester, as part of a major initiative to recognise and support businesses which want to work in more sustainable ways.
With an annual spend of £465m on goods and services, the university’s central procurement office works with thousands of suppliers, ranging from local small and medium enterprises to multi-national corporations, and over the past few years has been increasingly using its influence to help these businesses to become more sustainable and socially responsible.
We shortlisted eight suppliers to attend the awards out of 1,400 that have registered with our NETPositive Supplier Engagement Tool. Stephen Dauncey, Director of Finance, The University of Manchester, said ‘Being socially responsible is at the heart of the University’s mission and through our suppliers we can have a powerful influence far beyond the confines of our campus, into the wider economy. I was really pleased to see so many of our suppliers attend the event last week and the number and quality of changes these businesses are making is truly inspiring’.
If you'd like to find out more, you can read more about the story here.