Purchasing
Introduction
Collectively, institutions spend many billions of dollars on goods and services annually. Each purchasing decision represents an opportunity for institutions to choose environmentally and socially preferable products and services and support companies with strong commitments to sustainability.
Featured Resources
Latest News from AASHE Bulletin
New Resources
Migrating Paper Processes into SharePoint Membership Required
- Johnson County Community College (KS)
Our college uses SharePoint as a web platform for migrating manual paper-heavy planning processes online. Two primary examples of processes we have moved online in this way are Grant Applications ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Conference Presentations
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Purchasing The Sustainable Way Membership Required
- University of North Texas (TX)
Tackling the task of sustainable procurement in higher education requires a concentrated employee training program, collaboration amongst departments and a guiding team approachable for knowledge and resources. Universities can transform ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Conference Presentations
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Leading the University and Print Vendor Community toward Sustainable Practices Membership Required
- Grand Valley State University (MI)
Applying sustainability principles to the design of printed material needed by universities must take into consideration a life cycle from raw materials through the manufacturing of paper to design and ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Conference Presentations
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Clean & Green - Green Cleaning Custodial Program Membership Required
- Delta College (MI)
Early in 2007, Delta College Facilities Management embraced the transition toward greater environmental awareness by launching EverGreen. The goal of the program is to systematically incorporate sustainable practices and decision ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Conference Presentations
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Identifying Barriers to Reaching Sustainability Goals: a Case Study of "Green" Paper Purchasing and Commercial Printing Membership Required
- University of Alberta (AB)
Combing conservation with the use of 'green' products reduces the environmental impact of any institutional administrative unit or department more than one or the other. To prevent greenwashing, thus providing ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Conference Presentations
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Creating a Green Purchasing Policy Roadmap Membership Required
- National Association of Educational Procurement (MD)
The National Association of Educational Procurement (NAEP) fashioned a process to harvest the knowledge and expertise of its members to create a green purchasing policy roadmap. The process has concluded ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Conference Presentations
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Sustainable Facilities Management - GS-42 Membership Required
- PortionPac Chemical Corporation (IL)
- Green Seal (DC)
This presentation is designed to introduce you to the background, development and requirements of Green Seal's GS 42 standard, it's implementation on the Cornell University Campus, and to ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Conference Presentations
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Greening the Supply and Purchasing Chain Membership Required
- Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick Campus (NJ)
- Chlorine Free Products Association (IL)
This presentation will address the need for third party accountability in the process of greening the supply chain. It will describe reliable information sources that are used in setting standards ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Conference Presentations
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Life Cycle Assessment of a Banana Split Membership Required
- Central Piedmont Community College (NC)
It seems everyone is talking about sustainability. We are bombarded with news, businesses, governments, parents, and academia about products ranging from cars to household cleaning agents. However, when one asks ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Conference Presentations
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Green Power: An Environmental Choice for Leading Colleges & Universities Membership Required
- ERG Consulting Firm (MA)
This presentation will provide an overview of the green power market, the benefits of a green power purchase, and three case studies of specific green power initiatives. The presentation will ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
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Looking Past Single-impact Certifications: What Promises do they Really Make? Membership Required
- Forbo Flooring Systems (PA)
Third-party certification verifies that a product meets specific standards or claims made by the manufacturer. A major benefit of certification is that it can greatly reduce the time and expense ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Conference Presentations
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New Developments in Green Facilities Management Membership Required
- Green Seal (DC)
Presenters will discuss several new and important elements of green facilities management including two new Green Seal pilot programs: the Green Facilities Partnership and the Green Purchasing Partnership. These programs ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Conference Presentations
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The Power of Purchasing Membership Required
- Responsible Purchasing Network
The Responsible Purchasing Network (RPN) has produced a series of Guides on institutional procurement of socially and environmentally preferable products ranging from cleaning products to vehicles to computers. This presentation ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
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Applying Environmentally Preferable Purchasing to a Community Library System Membership Required
- University of Illinois, Springfield (IL)
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) came about in the 1990's to improve the purchasing habits of the federal government. Since that time, requirements for incorporating EPP at the federal level ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Conference Presentations
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Reaching Sustainable Research Goals through Co-curricular Learning: An Example in Starch-based Plastics Membership Required
- University of Pittsburgh (PA)
Conventional plastics, derived from petroleum, contribute to the depletion of non-renewable resources and landfill space when recycling or reuse is not viable. Starch, a renewable and abundant polymer, offers an ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Conference Presentations
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The Power of Partnership: Redefining Closed-Loop Recycling Membership Required
- Green Mountain College (VT)
Green Mountain College reaffirmed its commitment to being a leader in sustainability by joining Casella Waste Systems Power of Three™ closed loop recycling initiative. The Power of Three is Casella ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Conference Presentations
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Sustainability = Survival Membership Required
- Northwestern University (IL)
- Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick Campus (NJ)
- Chlorine Free Products Association (IL)
- Cascades Tissue Group (NY)
We are all working to do our best to move toward sustainable practices that are supported via our purchasing. So we will have a panel made up of managers of ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Conference Presentations
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Victorian Centre for Sustainable Chemical Manufacturing (VCSCM) Membership Required
- Monash University (VIC)
The VCSCM was designed to foster closer ties between manufacturers and researchers through access to practical scientific outcomes and innovative solutions to key issues faced by the industries, hands-on outreach ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Research Centers & Institutes
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Advanced Professional Sustainable Supply Chain Management Certificate
- University of San Francisco (CA)
With economic and environmental climates on the radar of everyone from consumers to congress, many of today’s organizations are rushing to implement processes to cut back expenses, run more ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Academic Programs
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Anticipating, Facilitating and Celebrating: The Ball State University Framework for Sustainability Implementation Membership Required
- Ball State University (IN)
University sustainability decision-making invokes actionable descriptors that can support the intention of social, economic and environmental considerations in higher education stewardship. However, commonly used terms, such as leveraging, championing and ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Publications
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The Benefits of Sustainable Purchasing Membership Required
- Green Seal (DC)
The credits in the AASHE Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) program can serve as a road-map to more sustainable purchasing policies. Green purchasing can benefit higher education campuses ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Publications
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The Power of Sustainable Purchasing Membership Required
- Green Seal (DC)
Summer marks the beginning of the new fiscal year on many campuses - this is a good time to do some housecleaning and review your purchasing policies. Green purchasing is an ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Publications
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Sustainable Procurement Toolkit Membership Required
- AASHE (PA)
- Ray C Anderson Foundation (GA)
With support from the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, AASHE is pleased to provide this sustainable purchasing toolkit which includes resources that support sustainable procurement at higher education institutions. Included in ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Publications
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Fair Trade Procurement on Campus - Summary of Resources & Links Membership Required
- Fair Trade Colleges & Universities (CA)
Higher education institutions spend lots of money purchasing goods and services - from paper clips to buses. In fact institutional purchasing accounts for nearly 2/3 of the American economy. Working ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Publications
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AASHE Interview Series: Sam Hummel, Director of Outreach, Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council Membership Required
- AASHE (PA)
- Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (DC)
Last fall, AASHE partnered with the Green Products Roundtable (GPR) on a pilot project that examined the impacts associated with an average higher education institution's spending. One of the ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Publications
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Can Higher Ed Lead Institutional Green Procurement into a New Era? Membership Required
- AASHE (PA)
Sustainable procurement work has never been more exciting. New data, science and processes are coming together with years of on-the-ground experience to create a new paradigm. A higher education pilot ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Publications
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Converting university spending to greenhouse gas emissions: A supply chain carbon footprint analysis of UC Berkeley Membership Required
- University of California, Berkeley (CA)
This senior thesis study calculates a supply chain carbon footprint for UC Berkeley based on procurement expenses in fiscal year (FY) 2009. The study presents recommendations to reduce supply chain ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Publications
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Should We Do It? An Economic Analysis of the Costs and Benefits of a Local and Sustainable Food System at Davidson College Membership Required
- Davidson College (NC)
Globalization created the conventional food system and its numerous negative effects such as environmental degradation, the loss of food cultures, antibiotic resistance, unsustainable energy use, increased food insecurity, unfair exploitation ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Publications
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A Guide to Developing a Sustainable Food Purchasing Policy Membership Required
- AASHE (PA)
- Food Alliance (OR)
- Health Care Without Harm (VA)
- Institute for Agricultural Trade and Policy (DC)
- Portland State University (OR)
This guide is intended to help universities, colleges, hospitals, and other institutions - as well as those advocating for food system change - create, promote and implement practical sustainable food purchasing policies ...
- Posted 1 year, 7 months ago
- Publications
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Innovations in Sustainability Curriculum: Teaching Full Cost Analysis through Student-Produced Documentaries Membership Required
- Furman University (SC)
The David E. Shi Center for Sustainability at Furman University sought to increase teaching of full cost analysis as a suite of tools that can be used as a framework ...
- Posted 2 years, 3 months ago
- Case Studies
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Paperless Campus Initiative Membership Required
- St. Edward's University (TX)
In recent years, St. Edward's University has undertaken several paperless initiatives. That which has most directly impacted the entire university community (students, faculty and staff) was spearheaded by Human ...
- Posted 5 years, 3 months ago
- Case Studies
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Aggieware - Moving to Zero Waste Events within UC Davis Student Housing Membership Required
- University of California, Davis (CA)
Aggieware, the reusable tableware program, was created by UC Davis Student Housing for use with all student programs in the residence halls to reach the University of California's goal ...
- Posted 7 years, 2 months ago
- Case Studies
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Reducing Printing Costs with Century Gothic at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay Membership Required
- University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (WI)
The University of Wisconsin - Green Bay researched typefaces and discovered that the Century Gothic font used the least amount of ink/toner based on a study done by printer.com ...
- Posted 7 years, 2 months ago
- Case Studies
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Implementing Large Scale Solar in the Land of Cheap Coal Membership Required
- Colorado State University (CO)
Colorado State University is home to one of the largest solar plants on a U.S. university campus. The fact that Colorado State has been able to expand renewable energy ...
- Posted 7 years, 3 months ago
- Case Studies
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This tab provides access to data collected through AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS). STARS is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. STARS enables meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements developed with broad participation from the campus sustainability community. Additional content and advanced benchmarking tools will be added to this tab over time.
Programs and Initiatives
The following links connect to specific Content Displays on the STARS website (AASHE membership and log-in required).
- Electronics purchasing policies, guidelines and directives
- Green cleaning product purchasing policies, guidelines and directives
- Paper purchasing policies, guidelines and directives
- Life Cycle Cost Analysis policies and practices
Scores
The following link connects to the Score Display on the STARS website (AASHE membership and log-in required).
Purchasing Partners
Pharos Systems International
Rochester, NYBusiness Leader
APC Filtration Inc.
Ancaster, ONBusiness Affiliate
Balfour College Division
Austin, TXBusiness Affiliate
CustomerFirst Renewables
Gaithersburg, MDBusiness Affiliate
EPEAT/Green Electronics Council
Portland, ORBusiness Affiliate
First American Education Finance
Fairport, NYBusiness Affiliate
Green Seal
Washington, DCBusiness Affiliate
Jostens
Minneapolis, MNBusiness Affiliate
National Association of Educational Procurement
Baltimore, MDOak Hall Cap & Gown
Salem, VABusiness Affiliate
Rivanna Natural Designs
Richmond, VABusiness Affiliate
Sleep On Latex
Chicago, ILBusiness Affiliate
Staples Advantage
Framingham, MABusiness Affiliate
Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council
Washington, DCBusiness Affiliate