Pollution Prevention: Environmentally Preferable Purchasing

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Pollution Prevention: Environmentally Preferable Purchasing

A Guide for TDEC Purchasing

This guide aims to help educate, encourage and assist TDEC employees in practicing environmentally preferable purchasing (EPP) as part of our effort to green TDEC procedures and to present TDEC as Tennessee?s green Department. The guide includes background information on EPP, a Central Stores EPP catalog, as well as resources for EPP through Tennessee On-line Purchasing System (TOPS) vendors. Notice that the EPP Guide is an EPP demonstration itself using: soy-based ink, duplex printing, and recycled content paper! Thank you for helping to make TDEC a green example for all of Tennessee State Government to follow.

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP)

Acknowledging our role as a consumer in the marketplace, the Department of Environment and Conservation will strive to perform environmentally preferable purchasing (EPP) whenever and wherever possible. It shall be TDEC's aim to combine our environmental expertise with our purchasing power to create a strong movement toward environmentally preferable goods in State of Tennessee purchasing practices.

TDEC is committed to environmental operating policy that includes:

1. Reducing purchases
2. Reusing materials
3. Buying environmentally preferable products and services
4. Recycling waste materials

What is an Environmentally Preferable Product?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established environmentally preferable products guidance (https://www.epa.gov/chemicals-under-tsca) that states:

"Environmentally preferable products and services have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared to other products and services that serve the same purpose."

Is EPP Cost Effective?

To be considered an environmentally preferable product, a good or service must perform its function with high quality standards while being competitively priced. In determining preferability, a product's price is compared to its environmental attributes. Sometimes this trade-off favors the less environmentally friendly product. However, new technologies have yielded competitively priced and high quality environmental alternatives.

When Can You Practice EPP?

? Office supplies ? Lighting  ?  Electrical appliances

? Promotional items ? Cleaning supplies ? Maintenance needs

? Plumbing  ?  Mailing items  ?  Lawn & garden items

What Should be Considered When Evaluating Products?

1. Pollution Prevention - Consider the environmental impact of a product's use as well as the product's manufacturing process. Recognize up front reductions in potential risk to human health and the environment gained through pollution prevention. Remember that you make all the choices in purchasing.

2. Multiple Attributes - Consider the impacts a product or service has in both natural resource consumption and toxic effects to the environment. Examining only one attribute can obscure possibilities that are even more harmful to the environment.

3. Life-cycle Perspective - Realize that environmental impact can occur at many points in a product's or service's life-cycle. In addition to the direct effects of use, consider effects of manufacturing, packaging, storage, maintenance, distribution, and disposal.

4. Magnitude of Impact - Consider the possible impacts of a product both globally and locally. Investigate how long a damaging product's effect(s) will persist in the environment.

5. Local Conditions - Buy products designed to function well in Tennessee.

6. Product Attribute Claims - Pay close attention to claims made by product or service providers. Question and test environmental performance claims.

Environmentally Preferable Printing

Practice EPP when printing documents: use recycled content paper, print on both sides of the paper, and print with soy-based ink. All of these options can be requested when completing a Printing Requisition, form GS-0132. Simply request your environmentally preferable requirements on the form, using the Special Instructions section when necessary.

Use this EPP Guide as a reference when you request printing. The booklet, duplex- printed with soy-based ink on recycled content paper, was designed to be an environmentally preferable example to follow.

Environmentally Preferable Products
Available through Central Stores

The following list of environmentally preferable products is provided to you from Central Stores. This list is an excerpt from the Central Stores Catalog that follows their familiar style. Please use this quick-and-easy EPP guidance for your purchasing needs.

 

PRINTER SUPPLIES

 

CLEANING PRODUCTS

DESK SUPPLIES

 

BINDERS & FOLDERS

 

PAPERS - BOND, PRINTER, WRITING, COPIER

 

PAPER - SANITARY SUPPLIES

 

ELECTRONICS ETC.

EPP CLUES

When shopping for environmentally preferable alternatives look for these clues:

? Recycled content ? Reusable ? Biodegradable ? Non-toxic

? Soy-based inks ? Non-aerosol ? Recyclable ? Refillable

? Water-based ? Remanufactured

EPP & TOPS

Environmentally preferable purchasing is possible even if Central Stores does not stock the item your agency requires. In this event, consider EPP through the Tennessee On-line Purchasing System (TOPS). Many vendors that sell environmentally preferable goods are already registered with TOPS. TDEC, through the Office of Environmental Assistance (OEA), will continue to solicit additional vendors of environmentally preferable products for your purchasing needs. For additional TOPS vendor information or to suggest additional vendors, please contact DCA at (615) 532-0445.

The following list of vendors are already known to provide environmentally preferable products and services. This list is not complete and should not be used as anything other than a reference. Tell your current suppliers that TDEC is practicing EPP. Most will provide you with the information you require to make well-informed purchasing decisions through their business.

* * * Please ask your established suppliers for environmentally preferable products! * * *

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For more information about the Tennessee Pollution Prevention Partnership, please contact Karen Grubbs at 615-532-0463 or by email at [email protected].