Jacquie Morton

Specialty Publications Sales Rep

Journal Community Publishing Group

Re: How To Article for Marketplace Magazine from Emmons Business Interiors

By: Heather McCombs, LEED AP

How to start your company on the path towards a greener facility, operations, and mind-set can be a confusing and challenging prospect for owners. There are sustainable consulting firms that will effectively guide you through the process and create a custom sustainability program for your facility and operations. This “outside-in” approach will achieve results, however an alternative, “inside-out” approach can be equally effective; start with greening your Purchasing Department.

The end goal is to create an environmental stewardship program that will lessen your company’s negative environmental impact, create a healthier workplace for occupants, and increase the corporate bottom line. Developing a green purchasing policy can be a cornerstone of this program. In most organizations almost everything we come in contact with in the workplace has been specified and procured by the Purchasing Department. Listed are a few measures relating to various environmental impacts that can positively affect your Triple Bottom Line; people, planet, profit:

Life-Cycle Cost Analysis – An analysis of the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process or service. Some of the more energy efficient products might have higher initial up-front costs. Performing a life-cycle cost analysis can determine that over the life-time of the product there is a high cost pay-back along with a smaller environmental impact vs. products with a lower initial cost. Specify green electronic equipment by choosing computers and appliances that meet ENERGY STAR, EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool), or other standards for efficient energy consumption.

Reduce Resource Depletion –

Recycle, re-use, re-purpose, re-furbish and reclaim: all of these methods divert waste from the land-fill and reduce resource depletion. Consider purchasing refurbished work-stations vs. new. Make sure the new carpet for corporate head-quarters has a high post-consumer recycled content in the face and the backing and select a manufacturer that will reclaim your old carpet and recycle it instead of putting it in the landfill.

Responsible Procurement Choices – Specify green materials for everything. Green materials share several important components; Recycled content is probably the most understood. Confirm that products contain recycled content, not just that they can be recycled. Understand the difference between post-consumer and pre-consumer recycled content. Post-consumer is material that has been recycled from consumer waste such as water bottles and newspapers. Pre-consumer recycled content comes from manufacturing waste that has not reached the consumer, such as scrap metal and sawdust. Specify items that are made with Rapidly Renewable Materials instead of non-renewables. Rapidly renewable materials are agricultural products that take ten years or less to grow or raise and can be harvested in a sustainable fashion. Wheat, straw, corn husks, bamboo and cork are examples. The most common applications for rapidly renewable materials are flooring and cabinetry. Consider Regional Materials which are extracted, processed and manufactured close to the end user’s location. Five hundred miles is the common benchmark. If everything purchased by the company can be sourced locally the positive environmental impact and potential cost-savings are huge. Low-Emitting Materials is a term that considers the off-gassing of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) which are chemicals released from manufactured products and have a harmful effect on people and the environment. Everything from paint and adhesives to furniture and carpeting will have a VOC content. Specifying materials with a low to zero VOC content will have a positive effect on the health and well being of the building occupants.

Education – Encouraging your purchasing employees to pursue educational opportunities in sustainable facilities and operations is a great first step to greening your Purchasing Department and will create the beginning of a comprehensive corporate environmental stewardship program.