About the Environmental Purchasing Program
King County’s Environmental Purchasing Policy reflects a long-term commitment to the purchase of environmentally preferable products. In 1989, King County adopted its original recycled product procurement policy in response to overburdened landfills and the need to create markets for newly collected recyclables. The policy was expanded in 1995 to include other environmentally preferable products. Because every purchase has an impact on human health and the environment, the goal of policy is to mitigate these impacts whenever practicable. Environmentally preferable procurement considers multiple product attributes, such as toxicity, durability, emissions, recycled content and conservation of resources, in addition to price, performance and availability.
The King County Environmental Purchasing Program provides county personnel with information and technical assistance to help them identify and evaluate, and ultimately purchase, economical and effective environmentally preferable products and services. In the past year, King County agencies purchased 41 million dollars worth of these products, saving $875,000 compared to the cost of conventional products.
The program continues to provide a central resource for internal agencies and for jurisdictions and other organizations across the nation. Program staff also continues their integral role in the development of the national membership-based non-profit organization called the “Responsible Purchasing Network,” serving on the steering committee. King County lends support to the network by sharing its experiences with others who are working to develop policies and programs to support the purchase of environmentally preferable products.
The program reports annually on the status of policy implementation and the environmental purchasing accomplishments of agencies. Recycled paper is used for all major government functions, including bus schedules, tax statements, court forms, pet license notifications, business cards, reports, and internal printing. Other purchases include: remanufactured toner cartridges; re-refined antifreeze and motor-oil; ultra-low sulfur diesel; biodiesel; hybrid vehicles; bio-based oils; plastic lumber, compost, shredded wood-waste and tire-retreading services. In addition to their environmental benefits, many of these products are more economical than those they replace and perform well.
Program success depends on enabling agencies to obtain the benefit of new opportunities being created in a changing marketplace by supporting them with information and technical assistance. In addition to producing educational seminars on specific opportunities, the program makes extensive use of the Internet, using email to distribute an "Environmental Purchasing Bulletin" and maintaining a website to make information available to agencies, suburban cities, and the community at-large on the environmental purchasing experience of county agencies.
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May, 2008King County | News | Services | Comments | Search
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