Purchasing power: The massachusetts environmental procurement program.

• Author: Friedman, Eric

By purchasing recycled and other environmentally preferable products, governments can positively impact the environment and even save money. Massachusetts' efforts in this regard can serve as a model for implementing a successful environmental procurement program.

What do sustainability, procurement, and good government have in common? In Massachusetts, they are the key ingredients of an effort to make state government more environmentally friendly, while at the same time increasing agency productivity and often saving money. Since the mid-1990s, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has taken a leadership role among states in a unique area of environmental protection--environmental or "green" procurement. Although procurement is not usually considered a focal point of environmental activity, an increasing number of governments and businesses are now leveraging the power of purchasing to positively impact the environment and to further their sustainability efforts.

Massachusetts' experience can serve as a helpful model for other governments considering environmental procurement initiatives. This article describes the evolution of the Massachusetts Environmentally Preferable Products Procurement Program; the environmental, financial, and economic benefits of green procurement; and the administrative and procedural considerations for coordinating an environmental purchasing program.

The Program

Massachusetts was one of the first states in the country to understand the importance of state procurement as an environmental driver. Since 1994, the central procurement office has directed a statewide effort to investigate, procure, and market environmentally preferable products to state agencies, authorities, and municipalities. Purchasers now have access to hundreds of recycled products on state contract, including recycled paper, envelopes and office supplies, plastic lumber benches and tables, re-refined motor oil, and recycled safety vests and traffic cones. Over the past few years, Massachusetts has expanded its purchasing focus beyond recycled content to additional products and services, including those that address energy and water consumption, the use and disposal of toxic products, and the generation of waste materials.

The Operational Services Division, which acts as the central purchasing arm for Massachusetts state agencies, coordinates the environmental procurement program. This division provides contracting services for a vast number of products, including many that are environmentally preferable, and makes them available to public entities throughout the state. Statewide contracts currently exist for thousands of products, ranging from copy paper and computers to fuel oil and road salt. There are also numerous contracts for services, including translation, pest management, and solid waste collection.

The environmental procurement effort is a cooperative one, with funding provided by the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and the Department of Environmental Protection. This funding pays for two full-time staff members dedicated to environmental procurement activities. These activities include, but are not limited to, the establishment of environmental criteria for statewide contract specifications; the identification, testing, and evaluation of environmentally preferable products; the promotion of these products to departments and political subdivisions; the planning and execution of educational workshops and conferences; and the tracking of purchases.

The program has enjoyed tremendous success so far, with recycled purchases growing from less than $3 million in fiscal year 1992 to more than $68 million in fiscal year 2001 (Exhibit 1). Growth has occurred as the state has either entered into new contracts for recycled products or expanded existing contracts to include these products. Educational and promotional efforts have fostered much of this growth. The state promotes the use of recycled products through a variety of means, including a comprehensive Web site, product fact sheets, a recycled products guide to state contracts, educational workshops, and an annual vendor fair.

Although much of the early growth was due to large increases in recycled paper purchases, including office and janitorial paper and lottery tickets, other types of recycled product purchases have grown significantly. These items, which comprise an ever-growing proportion of total recycled purchases, include carpet, compost bins, recycling containers, trash liners, traffic cones, office supplies, cardboard boxes, paint, motor oil, anti-freeze, plastic lumber, and remanufactured office panels and toner cartridges. In addition to recycled products, the state promotes the purchase of other environmentally preferable products like cleaners, pool ionization technology, energy efficient computers and copiers, and alternative fuel vehicles. Exhibits 2 and 3 provide a sense of the breadth and composition of the state's environmentally preferable product purchases.

In fiscal year 1997, statewide procurement reform resulted in the consolidation of procurement regulations and the establishment of an entirely new set of purchasing policies and procedures. Procurement reform affected the environmental procurement program in a number of ways. The eight pages of recycled product regulations were rescinded and replaced by a one-page document. Simultaneously, the Operational Services Division drafted an environmental procurement section for inclusion in the state's procurement policies and procedures handbook. This section outlines in detail the goals and requirements of the...