Making Green Procurements Easier with Cooperative Purchasing

Every day, public buyers must make decisions not only about what they purchase but how they purchase goods and services for their organizations.

Often, sustainable procurement goes by the wayside due to factors like lack of time or unknown products or suppliers.  Focusing on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP)* can be a daunting task. EPP is the procurement of goods and services that have a reduced impact on human health and the environment as compared to other goods and services serving the same purpose (Public Contract Code §12400-12404). Simply stated it means “Buying Green.”- Buying Green Guide (ca.gov)

Start with your sustainability goals. What are they? Often buyers only think of physical products being made from recycled products or being recyclable itself.

Something to think about:

Is your agency considering how it’s procuring these goods and services?
Does your process include a sustainable procurement method that takes into account digital paper savers such as:

• Never printing bid documents and response documents?
• Using an online system to research, get quotes and if necessary, bid?
• Review research or bid documents online instead of printing?
• Sending POs via email instead of faxing or mailing?
• Starting with contracts that have already gone through an extensive competitive bidding process?

One easy way to ensure all your procurement documents aren’t causing paper waste is by utilizing already competitively bid cooperative purchasing contracts. This allows you to remain laser focused on your product/service/company meeting sustainability goals while keeping a tight audit trail. It might seem like a small step but it could be the start of a substantial agency commitment to “going green.”

Cooperative contracts are an easy way to eliminate all paper waste in the actual procurement and allow your agency to quickly verify if the awarded companies meet your environmental requirements. Cooperative purchasing is also known as piggybacking. Piggybacking happens when an agency uses another agency’s contract, even thought it was not a part to the original solicitation and contract award. https://www.nigp.org/our-profession/cooperative-purchasing-programs

In addition to California’s Department of General Services (DGS) and national cooperative purchasing options, don’t forget your neighbors. Agencies like California’s own Alameda County has “green” cooperative contracts and an infographic highlighting how they got there, 2019-infographic.pdf (acgov.org).

It's not just paper savings, cooperative organizations often are committed to ensuring environmental requirements are part of their procurement process.

What type of EPP practices does the cooperative incorporate?

• Are the practices the same for every contract they award?
• Is their process paper-based or digital?
• What sustainability criteria is included in the RFP/ITB language ?
• How heavily is the criteria weighted?
• How do they encourage responses from companies with environmentally preferable products or sustainable products (SP)/services?
• Do they audit or monitor the contract for these commitments after award?

When doing research into a cooperative supplier’s offering, it’s important to be brand agnostic. Make sure your agency is open to all brands, including those who might have stronger corporate and product-focused environmental standards.

Create an internal checklist prior to piggybacking on a cooperative contract and include all the questions required by the State of California or your local authorities. Here are some examples:

• Are the agency’s needs clearly included in the cooperative contract’s award?
• Does the supplier’s award meet compliance with specific agency goals?
• Are the distance products are shipped or supplier staff travelling to complete the delivery of your request in alignment with sustainable best practices?
• Does the seller provide a plan for disposal of hard goods during purchase up front?

Don’t forget it’s important to “vet” both the procurement process of the cooperative and the supplier you’re considering making an award to. This is now an easy task with innovative digital tools, like DGS’s Buying Green Website or CompareCoOps’ free cooperative sourcing and research tool.

The Buying Green Guide (ca.gov) is the gateway to the state’s EPP contracts.

This guide provides information, tools, and tips for buyers and provides insight to suppliers on how the state views green products and businesses. It also provides links to green contracts, when available.

Identifying suppliers that fit environmentally conscious categories can be difficult without the right tools. CompareCoOps mandatory question functionality makes it easier to filter available cooperative contracts to find those that better meet your agency's goals and get a quote directly from the source.

Before your next procurement, stop spending time and effort creating an entire RFP or diving into hundreds of pages of documents. Either of these will likely leave you frustrated with what your environmentally conscious options are. Consider piggybacking and getting your “green” procurement requirements answered from the start with cooperative purchasing.

Sources:

Buying Green Guide (ca.gov)

https://www.nigp.org/our-profession/cooperative-purchasing-programs
Bids & Specifications - Purchasing - Sustainability - Alameda County (acgov.org)

www.comparecoops.com