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Sustainability

Additional tips for employees in procurement

Purchases are made in almost every organizational unit at UZH - from office supplies to large research equipment. This page is designed to help you contribute to sustainable procurement.

Table of contents

Step 1: Important questions before buying something new

You can achieve the greatest reduction of your environmental impact by buying less. Before buying something new, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Is the new purchase of the desired product avoidable? 
  • Can I obtain or use the product through one of our platforms – Office Supplies Exchange, Equipment Exchange, Platform Shared Equipment? 
  • Can I use the existing product a little longer? 

You can also post products that are no longer needed on the Office Supplies Exchange and Equipment Exchange or make your equipment available to other units via the Platform Shared Equipment, for example.
Office Supplies Exchange (Employee login required)
Equipment Exchange
Platform Shared Equipment

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Step 2: Considering sustainability when buying new products

Guidance to buy sustainably via P4U

Two symbols support you in sustainable purchasing on the UZH purchasing platform P4U.

  • Products classified by the supplier as sustainable are marked with the following symbol.   

Logo Nachhaltiges Produkt, weisses Blattsymbol und weisser Schriftzug nachhaltig auf grünem Grund

  • At the catalog level, you can see how the suppliers are rated in terms of sustainability. Depending on the rating, the leave appears green, yellow or red. By clicking on the symbol, you can obtain detailed information on the rating, for example to what extent the supplier considers sustainability in its supply chain.
Symbol zur Nachhaltigkeit von Lieferanten aus P4U, je ein weisses Blatt auf rotem, gelbem, grünem bzw. grauem Grund

Examples for sustainability criteria

Consider both environmental and social aspects when selecting a product or service provider. For example, the following criteria should be considered throughout the life cycle of a product (for detailed criteria by product group see next section):

  • Manufacturing: e.g. materials used, proportion of recycled materials, avoidance of conflict minerals, fulfilment of requirements of sustainability labels, compliance with the core labor standards of the International Labor Organization and other international labor standards, equal treatment of women and men in terms of equal pay.
  • Use: energy efficiency, repairability, long-term availability of spare parts.
  • Disposal: Recyclability
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Further information on specific types of goods and services

Construction

Office Material

Print shops

Food

IT and devices

Furniture

Cleaning and hygiene products

Textiles

Further information

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