Sustainable Procurement Policy

As a major local business organisation and as part of our Green Agenda, Wightlink’s procurement decision have major socio-economic and environmental implications. This policy will aim to mitigate the effects that Wightlink’s activities have on our environment and will aid supplier engagement to both support our aims and assist with development of similar polices of their own.

This Policy is aligned with Wightlink’s and Wightlink’s Shareholders commitment to continuous and performance-driven improvement and benchmarking. It is integral to our business strategy and success that we have a positive impact when dealing with our customers, suppliers, employees and wider society wherever we do business.

This Procurement Policy applies to all Wightlink staff, managers, directors, seeking to acquire, acquiring and/or managing ongoing contractual relationships for the provision of services and/or goods to or on behalf of Wightlink.

This Policy is to be achieved through the following methods:

• Thoroughly assess the need for the product or service to be purchased.
• Favour products with recycled content or that are recyclable or biodegradable and which conform to recognised environmental standards.
• Consideration of the whole-life cost, energy usage and carbon emissions of the product.
  • Consider how products are to be disposed of at the end of their life.
• Ensure that, where appropriate, environmental criteria are used in the award of contracts. This will include 20% of the evaluation process being awarded under CSR assessment.
• Suppliers should be able to demonstrate that they have credible documented policies relating to environmental management and wider corporate social responsibility.
• Ensure that suppliers’ environmental, social and ethical credentials are, as far as legally practicable, considered in the supplier appraisal process.
• Ensure there are no barriers to entry so that SMEs, local and regional businesses and ethnic minority businesses are encouraged to bid for appropriate work.
• Work with key suppliers to spread sustainable improvements in the supply chain such as making more facilities available for recycling waste products and reducing the amount of packaging and transport miles required.
• Suppliers should comply with all relevant legislation in the countries in which they operate and with all relevant International Labour Organisation conventions.
• Cease trading with suppliers showing persistent disregard for important elements of environmental, social and ethical performance.