Our suppliers are crucial to the Duchy achieving its own goals around making a positive impact. We can only achieve our vision in partnership with those we work with.
We want to support you to meet the same aspirations we have as a responsible business . The topics of our Sustainable Procurement Policy have been created to reflect these ambitions.

The Duchy also has specific commitments around reaching net zero, improving biodiversity, and delivering social impact. These goals will only be met if suppliers align with the pathways we are following to meet these objectives.

Suppliers may experience a range of benefits, depending on what they do, and how they work with the Duchy. These can include:

• Strengthening your overall partnership with the Duchy of Cornwall.
• Giving a structure to get to grips with aspects of sustainability and related matters that you may not have considered yet.
• Encouraging working in ways which lower risks, empower employees or create new business opportunities.
• Helping you provide answers to other bodies asking for related information (e.g. public sector bodies, regulatory bodies, and customers). There is increasing demand for information or policies around sustainability, ESG (Environmental, Societal and Governance matters), CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), or Social Value.

You will be able to assess your organisation’s progress against the indicators in the policy by responding to a survey. Existing suppliers are being approached initially, and the policy will also be incorporated into procurement of new contracts.

Suppliers are asked to:

• Respond to the yes/no questions when asked, via an online survey. This will take some time and consideration, but there are help notes and other support available.
• For topics where you do not comply (cannot answer ‘yes’), consider how your organisation might work towards doing this.
• For suppliers with annual spend/ new contracts above £25k, agree a timescale with the Duchy of Cornwall to comply with any gaps in the Minimum Level topics, and work towards doing this.

• Survey questions are about each of the 34 areas described in the policy, under the five Duchy critical success factor headings of Governance; Reputation; People; Sustainability and Viability. They are all related to the aspirations we hold of acting as a responsible business.
• There is a “yes or no” question about each item in the policy (e.g. Does your organisation gather customer feedback, and act on it?’ Yes/ No). For some topics, there is a filter question to clarify whether it applies to your organisation.
• You will not be asked to give evidence for your answer but can make comments if you wish.
• Questions are grouped into two levels: 17 Minimum (Basic) Level, and 17 Higher Level which are more aspirational. These levels are related to compliance with the policy; see below.
• If you can’t immediately answer the question, there are help notes provided to explain more about the topic and give examples.

• At a minimum, you need to answer all the questions in the survey.
• Suppliers who receive higher income from the Duchy are required to comply with (answer “yes” to) all relevant Minimum Level questions, immediately or within an agreed timescale.
• Suppliers are not required to comply with (answer “yes” to) the Higher Level aspirational questions, though you are encouraged to engage with all the topics.
• The Higher Level questions are used as a weighted criterion for procurement of large contracts.

Requirements to comply with the policy vary depending on the Duchy’s spend with your organisation:

• Help notes links in the survey for those who want it; particularly on the Minimum Level requirements and geared towards smaller businesses who may need more support. For example:
  • descriptions of what measures might look like for a smaller business
  • example policies
• Survey written in plain language as much as possible with clear signposting to which questions are relevant to who.
• Ability to ask for help from Duchy staff – your usual Duchy contacts as well as the central staff running the survey.
• Questions available in other formats if needed – please ask if you would rather answer the questions on paper, or by speaking to someone.

The Duchy often works with small suppliers, and we consider this a vital and valuable way in which we operate as an organisation.

Our support is particularly focussed on the point of view of smaller suppliers. For example:

• Help notes have been written with smaller suppliers particularly in mind e.g. describing how some topics can be thought about in a lighter, less formal way where appropriate
• Suppliers are asked to consider all the topics, but don’t have to immediately comply with all of them
• Only suppliers with annual income/ contract of £25K+ (from the Duchy) are required to comply with the Minimum Level questions, and time can be given to do so
• There is clear filtering within the survey regarding what is and what is not relevant
• You can ask for help if needed

The Duchy of Cornwall complies with the Minimum Level requirements (the areas that we ask some suppliers to comply with).
The Duchy complies with many but not all the Higher Level aspirational requirements. For areas where we do not fully comply, there is awareness of this and discussion around working towards compliance where possible. Again, this is what we would expect of suppliers.

Work is ongoing to further integrate the Sustainable Procurement Policy with other supplier policies at the Duchy.
For example, you may be familiar with the Contractors Policy, which deals primarily with insurance and Health & Safety compliance, for building/ trades contractors and consultants. Contractors who already comply with the Contractors policy will be well placed to answer some of the Sustainable Procurement sections.