Mobile Phones - Ethically Sourced

LUPC is a not-for-profit professional buying organisation owned by our members, for our members. Established in 1968, our sole aim is to secure best possible value for our members in the procurement of goods and services, without causing harm to others. LUPC's membership is made up of universities and colleges of higher and further education, as well as other not-for-profit organisations in the education, arts, science, charity, and wider public sectors.

LUPC intends to enter a contract for the procurement of mobile phones that have been produced with the aim of minimising their social and environmental impact in conditions that protect the employment rights of workers throughout the supply chain including wages above the in-country minimum wage line and a device design that is both end-user repairable and with extended software support to maximize the phone's useful life. This includes the use of conflict free minerals including Fairtrade certified gold or equivalent and partners to the Responsible Lithium Initiative, five-year manufacturer warranty, affordable spare parts, free and public repair information, being electronic waste neutral, device take-back schemes, commitment to supply chain mapping and sourcing from fair mining initiatives wherever possible, or from recycled sources, high percentage of post-consumer recycled plastic within device content, minimum 10% recycled content, minimum 30% fair material content, working conditions assessed including worker surveys and worker-driven action plans, restricted substances removed from manufacturing process, including auditing, Scope 1, 2, 3 active measurement and reduction programmes in place and publicly available supply chain mapping including engagement report.

Purchase is permitted by our members and the other consortia listed at Annex A, plus staff and students and includes hardware and SIM card airtime both individually and as package to that group. Our assessment is that this is a unique offering at the time satisfied by device OEM Fairphone delivered by Your Coop Business Solutions. The designated economic operator holds exclusive rights to sell to business customers in the UK on the above basis.

This requirement automatically covers Full or Associate Members within the higher education regional purchasing consortia as follows:

London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC) www.lupc.ac.uk/list-of-members.html ↗; Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC) www.supc.ac.uk/engage/our-members/o… ↗; North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium (NEUPC) www.neupc.ac.uk/our-members ↗; North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium (NWUPC) www.nwupc.ac.uk/our-members ↗; Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges (APUC) www.apuc-scot.ac.uk ↗ and Higher Education Purchasing Consortium Wales (HEPCW) www.hepcw.ac.uk/members/ ↗

Members of the consortia either already are or may be drawn from the Higher Education sector, Further Education sector, the Research Council and other Public and Third Sector bodies principally but not exclusively from the education, arts, sciences and cultural sectors. Additional information: The contract will be reviewed every year of the 4-year agreement, prior to renewal, to allow LUPC to react to any new entrant coming to market with an equivalent product.