Responsible Procurement Policy
Taking care of our friends
What Responsible Procurement means to us
This document states our positive intentions with our suppliers, purchase decisions and future targets.
We are keenly aware that what we design often has to be sourced, manufactured, delivered and installed on behalf of our clients. These five processes all have a social, environmental and economic impact. Our aim through the creation of this policy document is to lessen our impact and uphold a fair and responsible process throughout all of our business procurement processes.
This is our policy for Responsible Procurement. Many of the active and positive unwritten policies are already embedded in Double Retail which we will explicitly note later.
We have taken inspiration throughout the writing of this policy the work done by Bath University, UK, in the creation of their Responsible Procurement Code of Practice; http://www.bath.ac.uk/procurement/documents/resp-proc-code-of-prac.pdf
“In summary, Responsible Procurement is the act of procuring goods, services, or works in a manner that is considerate of the impact, both positive and negative, that the University may have on the environment, the economy, and society in general”
Environmental considerations
As a business overview we often project manage the sourcing with external manufacturers and construction of many of our designs on behalf of our clients. The build* of our designs falls into the following categories;
Retail fixtures - made from multiple materials and often sourced multiple suppliers including their packaging for transport.
Store interior construction - site works carried out by a third-party Main Contractor that include;
Mechanical and electrical works
Heating and ventilation works
Shell construction - floors, walls, staff comfort, store rooms and offices
Store front - including signage and windows. Also including temporary shuttering and signage prior to store opening
Lighting
Waste removal and recycling
Deliveries - from supplier to supplier and finished goods and materials to the store or distribution centres.
Installation - installers and Double Retail staff, their materials and associated travel and accommodation.
*Build – The manufacture, delivery and installation of fixtures and fittings into a retail space or environment
We recognise that all of the activities above have an environmental impact and wherever possible we will look to reduce our impact through better environmental consideration through all of our design service and sourcing phases. We also recognise that to reduce our environmental impact we will, wherever feasible, source locally to the intended point of use and manufacture with considered material choices and deliver responsibly.
To do this effectively we will collaborate with our suppliers and clients and adhere to our Responsible Design Principles.
We will use our best judgement to consider the final destination of products in our supplier selection to reduce material, waste and transport impacts.
Socially considerate
We have a long-standing commitment to our core suppliers located locally to our offices in Bristol. We will favour their supply and balance this with the final intended destination of the goods to ensure our ongoing commitment to them as partners and the adverse impacts of their distance from the final intended destination of the products and associated transport impacts.
All of our suppliers have been screened, whether or not already done so by our clients directly. We ensure they meet our Code of Conduct standards [please refer to our Code of Conduct document for details]
We visit all of our main suppliers through our selection process to ensure the validity of our assessments. Our commitment to our clients - at all times Double and our suppliers will;
Comply with the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act.
Be compliant with all local employment laws and respect employment diversity.
Understand the impact that our procurement decisions to suppliers and their staff & community.
Economic considerations
As a founding business principal, we have put payment on time as a primary goal of our business.
Wherever possible we will follow these payment principals to our suppliers;
Payment terms are always discussed and never assumed so that mutual understanding of ours and our suppliers’ financial needs are clearly understood and mutually agreed.
Once payment terms are agreed by all parties then Double will meet these terms and if, for whatever reason, we need to delay payment beyond the agreed terms we will contact the affected suppliers to agree new mutually beneficial arrangements.
Wherever possible we will offer EU standard payment 30 days terms or better.
We recognise that some SME’s and sole traders require special consideration and wherever appropriate we will make immediate payment or within 15 days wherever possible.
Future targets
We will actively engage and look to influence other tenants in our shared building to engage in positive action on Responsible Procurement principles.
We will look to influence our suppliers, clients and business community to engage in positive change through Responsible Procurement principles.
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