Introduction
Unique, driven and successful, the Norse Group brings together NPS (property consultancy), Norse Commercial Services (facilities management) and care provider, Norse Care to deliver services to millions of people across the UK. The group collectively purchases millions of pounds worth of a wide and varied range of goods, services and works.
What is sustainable procurement?
Sustainable procurement is the process of purchasing goods, services and works that takes into account the social, economic and environmental impact that this has on people and communities whilst still achieving value.
The Norse Group recognises it has an implicit role in furthering sustainable development, through its procurement activities and is committed to the responsible management of its procurement processes in order to deliver value for money, whilst actively pursuing environmental and socially responsible goods, services and works.
Our three principles of sustainable development within procurement are:
Economic
Obtain value for money from our contracts throughout the whole life of the goods, services and works purchased but also to ensure as far as possible under relevant procurement law, that local businesses and Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME’s) are able to benefit from being able to supply the Group
Environmental
Minimise any negative environmental impacts on goods, services and works purchased, across their life cycle from raw material extraction to end of life. Maximise the use of recycled products and products derived from reclaimed materials
Social
Manage and monitor supply chains to ensure our obligations within the Modern Day Slavery Act 2015 are met. Maximise opportunities for employment and economic gain within the communities where we are based.
We will aim to embed these three principles in our procurement processes so that they will eventually become an integral part of all relevant contracts at pre-tender, tender and post contract award stages (including monitoring and evaluation), through to the end of the life of the contract and including any disposal of equipment.
Our objectives
Our objectives are to ensure that the Norse Group employees, suppliers and stakeholders are aware of the group’s commitment to long term social, ethical, environmental and economic sustainability by:
• Ensuring that all procurement staff are trained on sustainability considerations
• Communicating this policy to our workforce, suppliers and stakeholders.
• Carrying out a sustainability risk assessment of all procurement categories and use this to prioritise our efforts on current and forthcoming contracts.
• Conducting visits and audits of our supply chain.
• Including sustainable procurement criteria in relevant tender exercises
• Committing to continually improving the sustainable performance of our supply chain
• Educating, training and encouraging our workforce to review their consumption of goods/works/services, reduce usage and adopt more environmentally friendly alternative products