Northumbrian Water

Winner of the Queen’s
Award for Enterprise

in the category of
sustainable development

We are proud to provide a sustainable, affordable, clean and safe water supply and to manage and treat the waste water returned to us in a way that protects the environment.

 

Procurement - Action plan

• Ensure that all business partners are treated with fairness and transparency.

• Introduce risk matrices in key category areas such as chemicals, transport, waste and utilities.  These matrices will identify, and group, actions under key headings that relate to our values.

• Build partnerships with suppliers to identify improvement opportunities and develop innovative solutions with benefits to all partners as well as to society and the environment.

• Focus on areas where we have a high impact on society or the environment: areas of high spend and products that involve a large amount of capital expenditure.

• On an ongoing basis, review the works, goods and services we procure to ensure that they reflect a real need and that specifications include social and environmental criteria early in the process.

• Assess our suppliers on the basis of social and environmental criteria, in addition to the financial ones.

• Ensure that all new suppliers are reviewed on their financial, health and safety, environmental and insurance records and performance.

• Seek to lead and support the local and economic development of the communities we serve and, to this end; we will use local suppliers where possible.

• Communicate our approach to our suppliers and engage with them on how improvement scan be achieved, working in partnership where appropriate.

• Review the policy annually to ensure that it is in accordance with the principles stated in our Sustainable Development Policy.