MEMORANDUM

This is a brief overview of EPA’s green purchasing activities and their impact on the environment.  It is informational and requires no immediate action, although it invites comment.

On May 1, 2005, EPA assumed an active Government-wide leadership role in recycling and using environmentally preferable office products, when we implemented our Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) with Corporate Express for “green” office supplies.  This Green BPA was the first of its kind in the Federal Government.  I want to share with you our successes to date, as well as the continuing need to promote its use.

The Office of the Federal Environmental Executive (OFEE) has recognized the BPA as an innovative means to ensure that green office products are purchased and tracked.  It has identified the BPA as a model for the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative, a Government-wide collaborative effort to identify, develop and implement ways to save taxpayers’ money through more effective and efficient purchasing of goods and services for the Federal Government.

Additionally, EPA won the prestigious White House “Closing the Circle Award” for creating the Green BPA.  This award is given annually to departments and agencies that demonstrate extraordinary environmental stewardship.

The Agency also met its primary FY 2006 goals related to the BPA.  The first was to increase small business participation (our goal was to have 52% of dollars spent on the BPA going to small businesses).  The second goal was to expand the number of environmentally preferable products available under the BPA by 100 new items per year.  Meeting these goals will stimulate commercial development of such products, increase their visibility and help create a demand for the products.

Here is just one example of what using recycled or environmentally preferable products means.  Over the past two fiscal years, EPA has purchased and used approximately 9,600 remanufactured toner cartridges for our desktop and network printers.  According to WasteWise, an EPA partnership program dedicated to helping U.S. organizations eliminate municipal solid waste, the recycling of every 1,000 toner cartridges saves as much petroleum (used to make plastic) as 8 passenger cars would burn in a year.  That’s about 4,200 gallons of gasoline saved.  As you can see, this adds up to significant savings, as well as helping to conserve the environment.

In spite of our accomplishments to date, we need to continue to increase the use of the Green BPA.  While its usage has steadily increased since its implementation, the Agency’s current status on our Environmental Stewardship Scorecard is “yellow.”   Increasing the Agency’s green purchasing is a big step in getting us to “green” on this scorecard – both figuratively and literally!

One action that will help in this area is fully complying with the environmental standard for our publications and the procurement of copy paper.  As of October 2001, the Agency’s standard for such paper was raised from the Government-wide requirement of 30% recycled/30% post-consumer content to 100% recycled/50% post-consumer content.  Our new standard can be met by using the Green BPA.  I encourage you to help the Agency meet that standard.

I commend the Office of Acquisition Management (OAM), Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), and the Office of Solid Waste (OSW), for their job in developing, implementing, and managing the Green BPA.  I also thank other Agency employees who support this important initiative, and I invite you to share your feedback regarding the Green BPA with OARM.  Comments or suggestions should be sent to Karen Richardson of OAM/OARM, at richardson.karen@epa.gov.  Feedback provided will be considered as part of our acquisition planning for future green office supply requirements.