Did you know that the United States consumes approximately 25% of the world's resources with only 5% of the world's population? Companies that "buy green" use purchasing power to minimize environmental impacts associated with this tremendous resource use. Green Purchasing is also called environmentally preferable purchasing (EPP), or purchasing products or services while considering environmental impacts, in addition to traditional considerations such as performance, price, health, and safety.

Green Purchasing Includes

• Buying less hazardous products to reduce regulatory liability, improve workers' safety, and lower disposal costs

• Constructing, designing, and maintaining buildings with energy-efficient and water-conserving products that can save money

• Selecting products that are reusable, refillable, and more durable or repairable. This creates less waste and is more cost-effective than disposable or single-use products in the long run
• Buying recycled products – products made with recycled content –and creating market demand for recyclable materials

Buying Recycled Products

"Recycled" products are products containing recovered materials. There are two types of recycled materials:

• "Pre-consumer" - recovered materials, such as mill or factory trimmings, damaged products or overruns, that are commonly generated by manufacturers and put back into the manufacturing process.
• "Post-consumer" - recovered materials that have been used by consumers, separated from trash and collected in recycling programs before being remanufactured.

The higher the percentage of post-consumer material in a product, the better.

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP)

In order for your company to Buy Green, you need to:

1. Know what products are available
2. Determine which of those products meet your needs and quality standards
   
3. Establish a policy to buy those products

Products

Green Products are available from a wide variety of vendors, including products made with pre-consumer and post-consumer recycled materials. For a comprehensive listing of green products, check out the Recycled Content Product Directory: http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/RCP/. Ask vendors for sample products to test quality.

Establish a Green Purchasing Policy

The best way to assure your business will buy green is to set up a purchasing policy and let others who purchase in your organization know about it. The policy should specify a preference for reusable, less toxic, energy-efficient and recycled products. Go to http://www.metrokc.gov/procure/green/ to view King County’s model environmental purchasing policy.