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Green Procurement Local, state, and national government can and do use their tremendous purchasing power to influence the products manufacturers bring to the marketplace. In the last decade or so, most efforts have focused on encouraging procurement of products made from recycled content (mostly paper). More recently, a number of state and national efforts have expanded beyond buy-recycled policies to "environmental preferable purchasing." A handful of local governments such as King County, Washington, and Santa Monica, California, have also spearheaded more comprehensive green procurement. King County’s Environmental Purchasing Policy directs county agencies to purchase products manufactured with recycled and environmentally preferable materials whenever practicable. The county added environmental preferable purchasing following enhancements to federal guidelines, which require "environmental preferable" purchasing by federally funded agencies. The county defines "environmentally preferable products" as products that have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing products that serve the same purpose. They include products that have recycled content, reduce waste, use less energy, are less toxic, and are more durable. In addition to the list of impressive recycled content materials procured in 1999, the county used formaldehyde-free medium density fiberboard, energy-efficient lighting, and low-volatile-organic-compound materials such as paints, adhesives, and finishes. Future contracts for computers and office equipment may include language for energy-efficient products.(19) The City of Santa Monica has several policies that promote the purchase (and thus the production) of more sustainable goods and services. In 1990, the City Council adopted into the city’s Municipal Code a ban on the purchase or use by the city of any tropical hardwood product. This ban aims to reduce the demand for tropical wood in order to slow destruction of tropical rainforests. In January 1991, the city adopted several regulations related to citywide purchase and use of ozone-depleting compounds (ODCs). These include a ban on the manufacture, sale or distribution of products using ODCs. The city adopted these regulations to reduce the impact ODCs have on human health and the environment locally and globally. The resolutions passed by San Francisco and Los Angeles to restrict future contracts with beverage companies or vendors to those who provide containers with significant recycled content, are also examples of local government wielding their purchasing power to influence products brought to the marketplace. (See Passing Local Resolutions.) The Northwest Product Stewardship Council, supported by several local governments, has a work group developing environmentally preferable purchasing criteria for computers including such criteria as:
A Guide to Environmentally Preferable Computer Purchasing (PDF file) is available. The work group is meeting with major computer buyers in the Northwest to learn more about their purchasing protocols and to encourage integration of EPP principles into those protocols. The group has been in contact with original equipment manufacturers to discuss EPP guidelines with them, and to put them in touch with interested buyers in the Northwest.(20) Other jurisdictions can replicate and expand on these efforts. Green purchasing is one important step that government can take to share responsibility for products and packaging. EPP does not, however, transfer the costs or physical responsibility from local government and taxpayers to the producer -- a primary function of EPR. But it can leverage EPR by creating markets for environmentally sound goods.
Facts to Act On #40, Local Initiatives Leverage Extended Producer Responsibility (November 20, 2000) |
