What
is Sustainable Purchasing?
Sustainable
purchasing demonstrates an organization's
commitment to buying goods, materials, services,
and capital improvements
in a manner that reflects core values of fiscal
responsibility, social equity, community and
environmental stewardship. The goal of
sustainable purchasing is to bring together
policies, communication tools, process
improvements, standards, and reporting
mechanisms to help align purchasing practices
with an organization's values and incorporate
these into a Sustainable Purchasing Program.
For a sample
Sustainable Purchasing Policy,
click here.
Who is involved?
Sustainable
purchasing is a collaborative effort that
involves all departments of your organization.
Why choose Sustainable Purchasing?
Sustainable
Purchasing Programs seeks to save money,
increase local, small, and minority and
women-owned business participation and
facilitate responsible environmental practices.
Environmentally
Responsible Purchasing Policies means purchasing
environmentally preferable products taking into
consideration the following attributes:
- Pollution
-
Waste generation
- Energy consumption
- Recycled material content
- Depletion of natural resources
- Potential impact on health and nature
A
Few Facts
Energy Star
is a joint program of the Environmental
Protection Agency and the Department of
Energy designed to alert consumers to more
energy efficient models. The EPA started the
program in 1992, and PCs and monitors got
the first labels.
If all
copiers sold in the United States were
ENERGY STAR®-labeled and set to
automatically default to duplex, the amount
of paper used could be reduced by more than
200 billion sheets. This adds up to a
savings of 1 million tons of paper, enough
to save an estimated 20 million trees!
(Massachusetts Operational Services Division
via EPA.)
The
European Community and Japan generate about
one-fourth less packaging waste per person
than in the United States. In the U.S., the
consumer bears the cost of packaging
disposal. Legislation in Europe places this
burden on manufacturers. Retail product
packages create about half of all packaging
waste. The other half is transport packaging
– containers for shipping products from
manufacturer to purchaser. (Minnesota
Pollution Control Agency)
Seven
hundred pounds of paper are consumed by the
average American each year*
Three cubic
yards of landfill space can be saved by one
ton of recycled paper*
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