Sustainable Purchasing Policy

Coordination Office of Corporate Planning and Data Management

SUSTAINABLE PURCHASING POLICY

1. Introduction and Purpose

Atılım University recognizes the critical role of sustainable purchasing and procurement practices in protecting the environment, promoting social responsibility, and achieving economic efficiency; and integrates sustainability principles into all aspects of its operations, including purchasing. Our campus-wide priority is to question and ensure that our academic and administrative requirements are realistically defined. This principle is also maintained in our purchasing processes.

Basic Purposes:

  • Environmental Sustainability: To prioritize the supply of products and services that minimize environmental impact throughout their life cycle, from source to disposal.
  • Social Responsibility: To support human rights, labor rights, and fair trade practices in the supply chain.
  • Economic Efficiency: To consider the total cost of ownership, including environmental and social expenses
  • Supplier Engagement and Collaboration: To actively collaborate with suppliers to promote sustainability, innovation, and continuous improvement.
  • Compliance and Reporting: To ensure compliance with laws, regulations, and internal policies related to sustainable purchasing and to report activities transparently.

Environmental Sustainability

The University prioritizes products and services that have minimal negative environmental impacts, including low energy consumption, water efficiency, and a reduced carbon footprint.

  • Product Preference: Products made from renewable or recycled materials and with minimal packaging are preferred in order to reduce waste.
  • Certification: Suppliers are encouraged to offer products with recognized environmental certifications and labels to ensure compliance with environmental performance criteria.
  • Circular Economy: Emphasis is placed on purchasing circularly-designed products that minimize product reuse and waste.

Effectiveness

Total cost of ownership, including purchasing costs, operating costs, and environmental/ social costs, is considered.

  • Cost Optimization: Cost-saving opportunities are explored by combining purchases and negotiating bulk discounts. Our purchasing criteria include not only the price of the purchased products but also their quality, their full fulfillment of the intended purpose, their lifespan, after-sales service support, part availability and spare part costs in case of malfunctions, as well as domestic product support.
  • Long-Term Contracts: Priority is given to long-term contracts with suppliers who offer competitive pricing and demonstrate a commitment to sustainability.

Supplier Engagement and Collaboration

The University encourages partnerships based on mutual respect, transparency, and accountability to promote sustainability throughout the supply chain.

  • Innovation: Suppliers are encouraged to produce and develop sustainable products and solutions that meet the requirements of the University while minimizing environmental and social impacts.
  • Green Suppliers: Green vendors and suppliers that integrate sustainability into their practices and supply chains are supported.

 

Implementation and Integration Processes

Integration with Purchasing Processes

Sustainable criteria are integrated into purchasing policies and procedures.

  • Evaluation Criteria: Evaluation criteria for supplier selection include sustainability considerations as well as traditional factors such as quality, price, delivery, and reliability.
  • Legal Compliance: As a foundation university operating under Higher Education Law no. 2547, Atılım University bases its procurement processes on Regulations on Foundation Higher Education Institution Tenders no. 30597, dated November 16, 20218, and the Atılım University Regulations on Tenders no. 31257, dated September 27, 2020, as well as standardized quality management systems that support its own internal sustainable procurement processes.

Sustainable Purchasing Strategies

The following strategies are considered when making purchasing decisions:

  1. Minimizing Unnecessary Purchases: It is essential to ensure that there are no pre-existing products or resources that meet the need at hand.
     Care is exercised to minimize unnecessary purchasing. Before making a purchasing decision, it is essential to identify any unused products, consider all their alternatives, assess their frequency of use, and evaluate shared use within the framework of goodwill relationships.
  2. Minimizing Consumption: Behaviors such as avoiding unnecessary printer use, using both sides of papers, and choosing reusable materials are developed.
  3. Performance Criteria: Sustainable options are preferred in the following product groups:
    • Electronic Products: Products that are highly energy efficient, certified, contain recycled content, and are repairable. Care is taken to ensure that devices such as refrigerators used in areas such as laboratories and school kitchens are energy-efficient products/ devices certified “Class A”.
    • Stationery: Reusable, recycled-content, plant-based/ water-based products (available stock is used first). The EDMS system is used to reduce stationery consumption.
    • Furniture and Building Materials: Recycled or refurbished, sustainably sourced, locally produced, and environmentally certified materials.
    • Food: Products produced using techniques that produce healthy food and ensure sustainable impacts on environmental, economic, and social systems.