Green public procurement policy and practices

CUT has established a structured and institution-wide approach to sustainable procurement through its Green Public Procurement (GPP) Policy, which serves as the University’s primary framework for integrating environmental sustainability into purchasing and tendering processes. The policy is publicly available, ensuring transparency and accountability in procurement practices.

The GPP Policy aims to systematically incorporate environmental criteria into all procurement activities, across all categories of goods, services, and works, minimizing the environmental footprint of the University’s operations. It applies across all institutional activities and ensures alignment with national legislation and European Union directives on green public procurement.

The Office of Environmental Policy (Green Office) plays a central coordinating and monitoring role in the implementation of the GPP framework, ensuring the consistent and systematic integration of environmental requirements throughout the procurement process. Specifically, the Office:

  • Reviews procurement documentation and tender specifications to ensure the inclusion of appropriate environmental technical criteria.
  • Recommends and incorporates green requirements where such specifications are not initially included.
  • Evaluates tender documentation prior to submission to the Tenders Committee, ensuring that sustainability criteria are embedded at all stages of the procurement cycle.

This structured process ensures that environmental considerations are integrated proactively and systematically into procurement decision-making, supporting consistency, compliance, and continuous improvement in line with institutional sustainability objectives.

In addition to environmental criteria, CUT integrates ethical and social considerations into its procurement framework through its Employment Policy Against Modern Slavery and its institutional approach to outsourced activities. These policies apply to contractors, suppliers, and external partners, ensuring that procurement processes promote compliance with labour standards, human rights, and ethical employment practices.

Through its procurement procedures and tender documentation, CUT requires all economic operators to comply with the Cyprus Public Procurement Law [Law 73(I)/2016], as well as relevant national, EU, and international labour and social standards. These requirements are contractually embedded through procurement procedures in line with Law 73(I)/2016, ensuring that suppliers and contractors adhere to obligations related to fair working conditions, prohibition of modern slavery, human trafficking, and child labour. This ensures that ethical and labour standards are not only promoted but formally required and enforceable through procurement contracts.

CUT further promotes equivalent rights and fair treatment for workers involved in outsourced activities by requiring third-party partners to uphold labour and human rights standards consistent with those applied within the University, and by reserving the right to terminate contracts in cases of non-compliance.

Through this comprehensive and operationalised policy framework, CUT demonstrates a strong institutional commitment to sustainable and responsible procurement, contributing to reduced environmental impact, ethical supply chain practices, and responsible resource use. This approach contributes directly to reducing lifecycle environmental impacts and promoting sustainable supply chains.​

Evidence