Procurement Case Study

How Clean is your School Uniform?

The Weald School - Billingshurst

We are teaching our children to respect each other and the environment.

But are we putting that into practice?

The uniform worn by the children of any school, reflects the values of the school and the children’s pride in their school. But what if those uniforms are produced at more than the asking price?

The school

The Weald is a large secondary school serving a rural area.

They have a good reputation for the values they hold and especially the projects they do on environmental issues and global citizenship.

The shop

The Weald school shop is one of very few run independently by a school.

They try to make Sustainable choices where they can and to run the shop to reflect the school mission.

Aims

• The aims were to identify products in the shop that could be sourced more sustainably – But with little impact on costs

Why uniforms?

We identified the uniforms as having a big sustainability impact:

• They represent the school

• There are real issues of poor working conditions in the garment manufacturing trade.

• Every child wears the uniforms

• Pros– Reflects the school’s ethics

and mission– Would be a big

achievement for the shop– Opportunity to include in

the curriculum and parent awareness

– Reduces risk of finding problems later that reflect on the school reputation

• Cons– Cost implications– Already have relationships

with existing suppliers– Time issues

What we did next

• Drew up a standard letter

• Letters sent to existing suppliers

• Replies were evaluated

Results

• Two main suppliers showed good policies and systems for managing supply chain labour conditions

• One supplier couldn’t show evidence

• No extra cost!

Lessons learnt

• Ask questions about the background and production of the things you buy.

• Information and evidence from suppliers needs to be properly assessed to identify those who are avoiding ethical issues or are trying to ‘greenwash’.

• A good environmental and social background doesn’t necessarily mean you pay more.

• The Engauge project makes us all think about where our shop products and garments come from and who has made them.  We all need to do our best to support 'fair trade'.

Jenny Morgan Weald Shop Manager