Procurement
WWF is aware of the impact that its procurement of goods and services has on the environment.
Consequently we monitor and select goods and services carefully to avoid those that are harmful or damaging to both the user and the environment.
We implement strict purchasing policies and guidelines and where appropriate we require suppliers to complete an environmental and ethical questionnaire in advance of issuing an order.
For goods in our Earthly Goods catalogue, we extend this selection process to a detailed analysis of the product, its manufacture, the raw materials involved and the logistics of getting it to the customer.
During the year we switched to reusable consumables, including refilled laser toner cartridges and batteries where possible throughout the organisation, achieving a long-term objective.
This year we collated and submitted our first report to the WWF Global Forest & Trade Network (FTN) on all the timber-based products we purchased during the year. The results are summarised in the table below.
| Category | Percentage | FTN required action |
| Percentage in Category 1: Unknown or unwanted sources | 0.15% | Eliminate and close off category |
| Percentage in Category 2: Known source | 1.25% | Eliminate and close off category |
| Percentage in Category 3: Licensed source (basic legal compliance) | Nil | 100% of all purchases |
| Percentage in Category 4: Progressing to credible certification | Nil | Investigate opportunities |
| Percentage in Category 5: Credibly certified | 10.69% | Increase to 12% or maintain |
| Ri: Recycled pre-consumer waste | 8.45% | |
| Rii: Recycled post-consumer waste | 79.47% |
One of our targets for this year will be to eliminate Category 1 timber from our purchase chain.
In parallel, we are undertaking a review of the risks and returns presented by placing all print work through a print management company.
This, we hope, will ensure no printing jobs will use anything other than paper and board that meets WWF-UK's procurement policy.
We continue to use Evolve office paper for printing and photocopying, which is 100% post-consumer waste, including waste paper from our own bins, and is manufactured in Kent, thus forming a tight, closed-loop process.
We used 527 boxes (6.55 tonnes) of Evolve paper during the year, up from 390 previously.
During the year, we appear to have printed, mostly double-sided, 1,450,000 pages - or an average of 1,787 pages per printer per week. This is a cause for concern and a new more stringent strategy for reducing the amount of in-house printing is being formulated and will be considered by management shortly.