Procurement Policy

Various elements of our business activities have some procurement activity to a varying extent, and the way in which this is managed is important to our reputation and profitability, and to our sustainability objectives.

We expect every individual that acts on behalf of Every Home Matters in the procurement process to behave in a way that is fair, transparent, honest and lawful. All individuals are expected to handle internal and external business with integrity and to reject any business practice which might be considered improper.

In line with our values we seek to procure goods and services in compliance with the highest ethical standards and we will comply, where relevant, with the ten principles of the UN Global Compact. We also expect our supply chain to meet the same principles where relevant.
This policy encompasses our approach to sustainable procurement and covers the following areas:

Human Rights

  • We uphold the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions and the protocols of the United Nations Universal

Declaration of Human Rights.

  • We expect our supply chain to implement policies and procedures that ensure all human rights are upheld in their business and to encourage their suppliers in turn to do likewise.
  • Our supply chain are expected to adopt management practices which provide a high level of safeguarding for their employees, and to ensure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses, child or forced labour; or discrimination in respect of employment practices.

Contracts

  • We ensure that our contracts are established in a fair, objective and transparent manner; are compliant with the regulatory framework of all relevant legislation, our business governance and audit framework, and our teams’ respective levels of authority.
  • We ensure that subcontracts are awarded on merit in fair competition and in accordance with fair business practices.

Local Procurement

  • We expect our suppliers to contribute to the social, environmental and economic development of the communities in which they operate and to purchase local products and services wherever possible.
  • We proactively support social enterprise organisations that tackle social problems or improve communities or the environment.

Environmental Protection

  • To the extent that it is possible, we ensure that both we, and our supply chain, operate effective policies, processes and procedures to manage the environmental impact of procurement.
  • Where possible we encourage our suppliers to work with us and to improve continuously with respect to this policy. We recognise that improving our procurement performance is an ongoing process and that our suppliers are important partners in our journey to become more sustainable.

This policy is effective from 01 April 2016