Investment and Supply Chain Sustainability at Curtin

Responsible Investment

Curtin University is committed to responsible investing, which addresses risks and opportunities related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, and integrates responsible investing into its long-term investment strategy. In doing so, the University monitors – for the managed funds it invests in – ESG ratings; carbon footprints; proxy voting reports; and assessments of compliance with the UN Principles for Responsible Investment.

For further information, please see Curtin’s Annual Report.

Sustainable Procurement

As stated in Curtin’s Procurement Procedures, consideration should be given to value for money, economic, social and environmental matters that may include considering:

Minimising environmental impacts of the goods and services over the whole life cycle of the goods and services;
Strategies to avoid unnecessary consumption and manage demand;
Suppliers’ socially responsible practices including those of their supply chain and compliance with legislative obligations to employees; and
Value for money over the whole-of-life of the goods and services, rather than just the initial cost

Curtin’s Modern Slavery Statement

Curtin’s statement sets out the University’s commitment to addressing risks of modern slavery in our organisation. The COVID pandemic persisted in its disruption to operations in 2021. However, despite the uncertainty faced, we remained in strong organisational shape due to the resourcefulness and resilience of our Curtin community.

We continue to apply that resourcefulness towards understanding and identifying risks of modern slavery in our operational and supply partnerships. While we have taken important first steps, we recognise that modern slavery is a diverse and complex issue that requires a collective and ongoing commitment to improvement by Curtin and our global partners.

We are proud to be a socially and environmentally conscious education and research institution and recognise our responsibility to collaborate and innovate so that our practices make a difference in a socially sustainable way.

The principles and standards that Curtin has consulted and considered in our development of this Statement include:

The United Nations (UN) Declaration of Human Rights
The UN and International Labour Organisation conventions
The UN Global Compact’s ten principles
The UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Curtin’s definition of modern slavery encompasses slavery, servitude, the worst forms of child labour, forced labour, human trafficking, debt bondage, slavery like practices, forced marriage and deceptive recruiting for labour or services.

This is Curtin’s second statement, and it describes our actions over the past financial year to develop a strategic, industry wide and informed approach in collaboration with the Australian University Procurement Network (AUPN), and in line with the requirements of the Australian Modern Slavery Act.

It outlines Curtin’s approach to develop a framework to detect the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking across our Australian operations and supply chain and implement appropriate responses.

For more information, please see Curtin’s Modern Slavery Statement.

For further information on sustainability initiatives at Curtin please see: