Preamble
Hong Kong Baptist University endeavours to exercise responsible procurement practices by adopting the “cradle-to-grave” principle in its procurement decision-making process, aiming to minimising the environmental and social impacts throughout the whole lifecycle of the products purchased.
Policy Statement
The University undertakes to consider the impacts of products on the environment, natural resources, and biodiversity throughout its whole lifecycle. The considerations apply to the raw materials used, its design, construction/manufacturing processes, operations and maintenance, environmental attributes, supply chain management of the suppliers as well as the negative impacts in the final disposal of the products.
The University puts the sustainable procurement into practice through:
Compliance Obligations
- Comply with all applicable local legislations and regulations, and whenever possible, the guidelines or best practices of sustainable procurement.
Source Reduction
- Minimise and reduce the need for products and services whenever possible;
- Minimise single-use disposable materials and products whenever possible;
- Minimise single-use plastics on campus:
- Ban the sale and distribution of single-use plastic tableware unless unavoidable;
- Ban the sale and distribution of single-use plastic bottled water and provide sufficient drinking water dispensers on campus; and
- Encourage the use of digital or recyclable signs and banners to substitute single-use plastic banner in all events.
Considerations of Environmental Attributes
- Take the below environmental attributes into account during procurement as far as practicable:
- Durable products and equipment;
- Materials with low embodied energy;
- Locally produced materials;
- Wood products from well-managed sources, e.g. FSC and/or PEFC certified sources;
- Recycled, salvaged and/or refurnished materials and products;
- Rapidly renewable materials;
- Bio-degradable materials;
- Materials with no ozone depleting substances in the whole lifecycle;
- Materials with no/low levels of toxicity and emissions in the whole lifecycle;
- Minimal packaging and/or recyclable packaging;
- Products that can be recycled / have high recyclable content;
- Energy efficient appliances and equipment; and
- Water efficient appliances;
Waste Management
- Adopt the waste management hierarchy which emphasises on Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair and Recycle (i.e. the ‘6Rs’ principle); and
- Reduce waste loads by making waste reduction at source a top priority and encourage cyclical use of resources.
Supply Chain Management
- Identify suppliers and contractors that use environmentally friendly and socially sustainable work practices that are in line with the “Code of Conduct for Suppliers and Outsourced Service Providers”, “Policy on Anti-Slavery and Equivalent Rights for Outsourced Workers”, “Sustainable Food Policy” and/or “Waste Management Policy” where applicable; and
- Undertake periodic evaluation of supplier and contractor performance.
The policy will be reviewed from time to time as appropriate and, in any event, once every three years. The policy also applies to all of our service providers and the supply chains, and will also be made available and known to all these stakeholders and the public.