The Duchy of Cornwall’s vision is Sustainable Stewardship – for Communities, Enterprise and Nature. The Duchy’s suppliers are instrumental in supporting us in achieving that vision, so we have set the following five principles we will follow in our purchasing decisions and ongoing supplier relationships:
Governance: observance of laws and ethics is the minimum standard we expect, and we prefer to work with suppliers who can demonstrate they go beyond those minimum standards
Reputation: we aim to work with suppliers who share our vision and have their own strong organisational values
People: we provide decent work to our staff and value inclusivity in our teams and local communities, and we want our suppliers to do the same
Sustainability: the climate and nature crises require us all to transform how we work to create a safer future, we want to work with suppliers who share our urgency
Viability: in assessing proposals will always look to achieve best value for money from suppliers, considering quality, social and environmental impact as well as cost
We want all our suppliers to be able to work towards adherence to a minimum level of compliance with each of these five principles. We also have higher aspirations, especially for our larger suppliers, and we will work with suppliers to aim towards these. Where a supplier is not able to demonstrate current compliance with this policy, we will engage with them to establish a plan for compliance within a mutually-agreed reasonable period. Where we have a choice of suppliers and all other things are equal, we will naturally favour those who can demonstrate they meet those higher aspirations.
The policy can be read in full here.
