The National Audit Office has calculated that UK higher education bodies alone buy over £3 billion a year of goods and services. The total for all further and higher education bodies in the UK is obviously much higher.

The creation and use of these goods and services have considerable environmental impacts. Taking these impacts into account during the buying process can help reduce them by:

Choosing environmentally superior alternatives

Persuading suppliers to change their own production and procurement practices.

The aims of sustainable procurement are achieve the normal goals of procurement, but in ways which maximise environmental and social benefit. They can be summarised as:

•  Reduce waste and improve resource efficiency

•  Secure the supply of goods/ services

•  Ensure cost savings/value for money

•  Enhance the institution's image

•  Create/support green markets

•  Satisfy stakeholder expectations e.g. students.

In practice, none of this is likely to happen if sustainable procurement involves much greater expense, or if it is very difficult to implement in practice. Fortunately, experience shows that FHEis can overcome these constraints and make a difference through their cheque books.