Sustainable Procurement

2/3rds of UCL's carbon emissions come from the goods and services that UCL buys. It is therefore critical we understand the impact and opportunities of UCL’s sourcing and buying decisions.

Sustainable procurement commitments

As well as addressing the environmental impacts of UCL's purchasing, we must consider the social impacts too, such as ensuring fair employment and eradicating Modern Day Slavery in our supply chains.

What is UCL doing?

Making it easier for staff to make the right purchasing decisions through training and support;
Continually assessing and improving using the Sustainability Procurement code;
Embedding the circular economy into UCL's Sustainable Building Standards.

Supplier Engagement

Two people working at desks in UCL Student Centre

Responsible Procurement Code

Assessing sustainability risks

EPEAT Gold rated electronic equipment

Modern Slavery

Ethical and sustainable food sourcing

Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium

UCL is a member of SUPC. UCL uses SUPC’s framework agreements for the procurement of goods and services for example our IT equipment is predominantly procured through SUPC, which are members of the Electronics Watch. This ensures we are supporting labour rights for workers of these manufacturers.

> Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium
> Electronics Watch

Cross-disciplinary activities

Institute of Making is a cross-disciplinary research club for those interested in the made world: from makers of molecules to makers of buildings, synthetic skin to spacecraft, soup to diamonds, socks to cities. Staff and students can use this free resource to remake materials into new ones.

The Circular Economy Lab is an exciting cross-faculty, cross-discipline initiative, aiming to use UCL's expertise to improve the design of buildings and products, their reuse and recycling, and the return of their constituent materials back to the economy.