SPP IN APUC

APUC (Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges) Limited is the procurement centre of expertise for all of Scotland universities and colleges, established initially in response to the McClelland Report: 'Review of Public Procurement in Scotland', which made recommendations for public procurement reform.

APUC's work covers a wide scope of all relevant aspects of social, ethical, human rights and environmental (with a strong focus on the addressing the climate emergency) supply chain impacts. The Responsible Procurement resources within APUC are there to both support the APUC core team in addressing these matters, but also with a strong focus on supporting all procurement staff and other stakeholders based in member institutions, and other relevant sector / cross-sector groups in maximising effectiveness in this area.

APUC's core vision is "To maximise the value of Scotland's investment in further and higher education by working in partnership with institutions to support and enable sustainable innovation in procurement and shared service optimisation".

SPP HIGHLIGHTS

APUC has become the first full consortium member of Electronics Watch, a European organisation set up to drive improvements in labour conditions of IT supply chains, and provides a structure compliant with EU public procurement legislation to investigate, monitor and address labour issues in IT products supplied to public buyers.

CONTACT

SPP IN ACTION

POLICY AND STRATEGY

APUC aims to be a leader, on behalf of client institutions, in driving forward the sustainable procurement agenda, delivering best value for institutions whilst being committed to embedding and effecting advanced sustainable procurement.

Exploiting opportunities for collaborative procurement

The university and college sectors, particularly in Scotland, have been at the forefront of procurement collaboration for many years. Collaboration has yielded significant savings for the sectors prior to the formation of APUC and increasingly since.

Responsible Procurement

Responsible procurement has a wide scope covering all relevant aspects of social, ethical, human rights and environmental (with a strong focus on the addressing the climate emergency) supply chain impacts. The Responsible Procurement resources within APUC are there to both support the APUC core team in addressing these matters, but also with a strong focus on supporting all procurement staff and other stakeholders based in member institutions, and other relevant sector / cross-sector groups, in maximising effectiveness in this area.

Sustainable Procurement

APUC, with the help of its client institutions' collaborative buying power, strives to bring about positive impacts on supply chain sustainability, reaching as far into its supply chain as reasonably possible.

APUC is committed to working sustainably and to support the sustainable procurement duty brought into force by the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. To meet these obligations and to demonstrate APUC's commitment to achieving economic, social and environmental benefits in its procurement activity, APUC has developed policies and tools and launched a web portal to assess its supply chain. APUC encourages SMEs, third sector businesses and supported businesses to bid for contracts.

EXPLORE MORE