Environmentally Preferable Purchasing

Environmentally preferable purchasing (EPP) refers to procurement policies that seek to minimize the environmental impacts of purchasing decisions. EPP, alternatively referred to as “green purchasing,” has been implemented in various forms by governments at all levels with the intent of using their purchasing power to strengthen markets for environmentally preferable products, and to lead the way to environmentally responsible purchasing decisions by example. While private firms and individuals also engage in EPP, except when taking collective action, their ability to sway markets is comparatively limited. Governments expend vast amounts of money annually to very effectively augment private sector demand both by government purchases and by providing incentives to manufacturers for developing greener products.

In the United States, EPP became federal policy with the adoption of Executive Order 12873 in 1993. Two years later, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the Proposed Guidance on Acquisition for Environmentally Preferable Products and Services. In 1996 the EPA teamed with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and [Page 223]Development (OECD) to study the programs operating in OECD member countries. Based on that research, comments received on the 1995 document, and pilot projects conducted by the agency, the EPA released its Final Guidance on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing in 1999.

The EPA's EPP program rests on four primary guiding principles. The first is that environmental costs must be as a matter of course factored into any governmental purchasing decision. In decades past, price and performance were the only metrics considered. Ignoring externalized costs benefited certain vendors, giving them a competitive edge in the procurement process, but those environmental costs avoided by manufacturers were ultimately exacted on citizens and the government in the form of public health, remediation, or liability costs. The EPP approach requires all foreseeable costs to be documented using life cycle cost analysis techniques and transfers the competitive advantage to firms that operate in an environmentally responsible manner. The second principle of the EPP program is that pollution prevention should be integral to the procurement process, starting at the earliest decision point. Consideration must be given to whether acquisition of the product is necessary at all, whether an environmentally superior substitute is available. or, where no substitute exists, how the product can be altered to lessen any detrimental environmental impacts. The third principle requires comparative life cycle analysis. This entails examining the product from multiple perspectives, taking such attributes as toxicity, energy requirements, and impacts to sensitive habitats into account. The fourth principle calls for comparison and rank ordering of products relative to the type, scope, scale, and geographic extent of any impacts. Of primary concern is the impact to human health, including the health of the producer's employees, the end user, and the general public. The impacts must also be assessed on the basis of how broad an area is affected, how long the impacts can be expected to persist, and whether impacts are reversible.

NASA was among first federal agencies that committed to environmentally preferable purchasing after President Clinton signed it into law in 1993. Here, a great blue heron flies near Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which shares a boundary with a wildlife refuge

Source: Dimitri

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