Page 18 - College Planning & Management, July/August 2017

GREEN PURCHASING
SPENDING GREEN TO BUY ‘GREEN.’ Colleges and univer- sity administrators know that sustainability is important to today’s students; many prospective students ask about an institution’s demonstrable commitment to “green” before enrolling. Still, there is a perception that green products are more expensive than conventional alternatives. Although this may be true for some products, particularly where development costs are reflected in the price, often there is no significant difference. Evaluating current procurement strategies and setting goals for improvement in green buy- ing efforts, along with investing the time to research options and opportunities, will lead to success.
As it progresses, the green procure- ment movement is expanding beyond a suite of sustainable products to a more holistic approach. Leading-edge green procurement practitioners examine the entire ecosystem — production, supply chains, consumption and disposal — in an effort to change behaviors, shrink carbon footprints, reign in pollutants and generate less waste.
Many major corporations are com- mitted to green procurement. Some municipalities, cities and states are on board, too. So where is green procure- ment on college campuses today? Is it still a nice-to-have-subset of a school’s total spend? Or more of that holistic, baked-in approach?
“It’s a real mixed bag,” explains Jer- emy Schwartz, director of cooperative contracts and procurement, National Joint Powers Alliance. He sees green procurement as well beyond the fad stage. The real barrier, in his mind, is budget constraints.
Are We
Green Yet?
“It seems like green procurement is a desire with financial limitation,” Schwartz muses. “While some schools might budget more towards it, when it comes down to sustainable procurement versus price-based procurement there’s still too many examples where the green option costs more. And that limits growth.”
Brian Yeoman, director of sustain- able leadership, National Association
of Educational Procurement (NAEP), agrees that price is a common battle cry heard on many campuses. Yet data he gathers from the yearly Green Procure- ment Survey Report tells an emerging story. “For bigger schools the real prob- lem is data management systems that
The concept of green procurement has been around for nearly two decades.
Are colleges and universities on board?
By Amy Milshtein
BUYING GREEN IS OLD NEWS. Around since the mid-1990s, the concept yielded a thick catalog of eco-rated products and services to choose from. Granted, many of these products oversold their efficacy or environmental bona fides to jump on a lucrative bandwagon, but greenwashing is not the issue it used to be. Today credible certifications back up product claims and years of user experience quantify them anecdotally.
18 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / JULY/AUGUST 2017
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