Page 26 - spaces4learning, July/August 2020

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Sustainability is at the forefront
Sustainability ranks highly on the list of cooperative pur- chasing done by school districts. National level suppliers are “encouraging consolidated deliveries with minimum thresh- olds,” Peters said.
Sustainable products get promoted online, increasing aware- ness and making it easy for school districts to make purchasing decisions. This is specifically seen in energy management and building automation. School districts are into retrofitting light- ing, and use of occupancy sensors for heating, cooling and light- ing, and these spaces are also good learning tools, according to Peters.
providing members opportunities to work with suppliers that qualify as minority-owned, women-owned, disadvantaged, and local business enterprises.
“When soliciting new contracts, it is our goal to identify and include various diversity suppliers who can serve our members’ business requirements,” said Peters.
To qualify, suppliers must be at least 51 percent owned, op- erated, and controlled by an individual or individuals within nationally recognized diversity supplier qualifications. In addi- tion to direct relationships, many E&I suppliers partner with third-party diversity suppliers who can then collaborate with members to discuss the potential for creating a formal minority/
Members consider the environ- mental impact of the products and services they purchase and “green” characteristics are evaluated positive- ly and reflected in the “value added” area of the evaluation at Sourcewell.
Perhaps the greatest benefit that schooldistrictsgetinusingpurchas- ing cooperatives is the ease of doing business. Most school districts can get out of a complex RFP process that is resource and time sensitive. “Time to market is huge and with any one of our 125 contracts, they can just buy it off from day one, with no obligation or minimum spend commitment,” said Peters.
SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS GET PROMOTED ONLINE, INCREASING AWARENESS AND MAKINGITEASYFOR SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO MAKE PURCHASING DECISIONS.
diversity program.
Sourcewell also “grants positive
consideration for a variety of sustain- ability factors in the evaluation pro- cess.” We recognize that our members may have targets, goals, or prefer- ences for purchases from historically underutilized businesses. Proposals by women and/or minority-owned business enterprises (WMBE), small business enterprises (SBE), and other historically underutilized businesses, along with proposals offering green or sustainably produced products, are eligible to receive value-added point consideration in our scoring matrix.
According to a position paper published by NIGP: The In- stitute for Public Procurement, “cooperative procurement is one form of strategic sourcing and cooperative contracts leverage value-added pricing, vendor services levels and advantageous contract terms.” Cooperative contracts offer the government purchaser access to quality products at competitive prices, ben- eficial delivery and contract terms.
Supplier diversity is key
Supplier diversity is a key area in cooperative purchasing. E&I supports their members’ diversity spend initiatives by
Transparency, ease of use helps them thrive
Cooperative purchasing organizations offer a level of trans- parency for their members to engage in business transactions. Members across the country have worked together to develop E&I’s competitive RFP Process and it has been validated by NIGP: The Institute of Public Procurement.
One of the greatest advantages they offer is consistency and ease of use for busy K–12 purchasing cooperatives to make pur- chasing decisions. They also leverage collective knowledge and the purchasing power that delivers a large collective market.
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