Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 67.18
Liaison Weston Dripps
Submission Date Aug. 19, 2024

STARS v3.0

Amherst College
OP-10: Purchased Goods

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.22 / 4.00 Weston Dripps
Director of Sustainability
Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Local currency code:
USD

Does the institution have sufficient data on its cleaning product spend to pursue this indicator?:
Yes

Performance year for cleaning products spend:
2023

Total annual spend on cleaning products:
58,418.90

Annual spend on cleaning products that meet preferable sustainability criteria:
36,937.94

Annual spend on cleaning products that meet other qualifying sustainability criteria:
1,124.38

List or sample of cleaning product purchases that meet sustainability criteria:
  • Preferable criteria

    • Kellco Green Clean H2O2 - Green Seal

    • Focus Safe 2 Clean RTU-Quarts - EPA Safer Choice

    • Health Guard® Foaming Luxury Hand Soap Dye & Fragrance Free - 1000 mL - Green Seal

    • 102 Glass & Multi-Surface Cleaner - 1/2 Gal. - Green Seal

    • 116 Non-Acid Restroom & Shower - 1/2 Gal. - Green Seal

    • PC117 Winterclean TP Floor Cleaner - .5 Gal. - Green Seal

    • 120 Peroxide Multi-Surface Cleaner - 1/2 Gal. - Green Seal

    • 121 Pro-Zyme - 1/2 Gal. - Green Seal

    • 123 Neutral-Scrub & Glass Cleaner - 1/2 Gal. - Green Seal

    • Hillyard, Super Shine-All® Hard Floor Cleaner, 1 gal Bottle - Green Seal

    • Hillyard, Cleaning Companion® Suprox® Multi-Purpose Cleaner, 0.5 gal Bottle - Green Seal

  • Other criteria

    • Solopol H.D. Hand Cleanser - USDA Biopreferred

    • 106 Citrus APC & Degreaser - 1/2 Gal. - 100% biodegradable

 


Percentage of cleaning product spend that meets preferable sustainability criteria:
63.23

Percentage of cleaning product spend that meets other qualifying sustainability criteria:
1.92

Points earned for indicator OP 10.1:
0.64

Does the institution have sufficient data on its electronics spend to pursue this indicator?:
Yes

Performance year for electronics product spend:
2023

Total annual spend on electronics:
972,754.49

Annual spend on electronics that meet preferable sustainability criteria:
453,938.59

Annual spend on electronics spend that meet other qualifying sustainability criteria:
0

List or sample of electronics purchases that meet sustainability criteria:
  • All purchased Apple products met the EPEAT Gold standard. 
  • Lenovo ThinkPad - EPEAT Gold
  • Lenovo ThinkVision monitors - TCO certified
  • Lenovo ThinkCenter desktops - EPEAT Gold

Percentage of electronics spend that meets preferable sustainability criteria:
46.67

Percentage of electronics spend that meets other qualifying sustainability criteria:
0

Points earned for indicator OP 10.2:
0.47

Does the institution have sufficient data on its furniture spend to pursue this indicator?:
Yes

Performance year for furniture spend:
2024

Total annual spend on furniture:
247,607.78

Annual spend on furniture that meets preferable sustainability criteria:
83,413.68

Annual spend on furniture that meets other qualifying sustainability criteria:
164,194.10

List or sample of furniture purchases that meet sustainability criteria:

Percentage of furniture spend that meets preferable sustainability criteria:
33.69

Percentage of furniture spend that meets other qualifying sustainability criteria:
66.31

Points earned for indicator OP 10.3:
0.67

Does the institution have sufficient data on its office paper spend to pursue this indicator?:
Yes

Performance year for office paper spend:
2023

Total annual spend on office paper:
30,945

Annual spend on office paper that meets preferable sustainability criteria:
0

Annual spend on office paper that meets other qualifying sustainability criteria:
27,315

List or sample of office paper purchases that meet sustainability criteria:

Offices order their paper through our Campus Print and Mail center. In FY23 offices ordered $30,945 in office paper - $27,315 of that was 30% recycled content; the other $3,630 was on non-reycled paper.


Percentage of office paper spend that meets preferable sustainability criteria:
0

Percentage of office paper spend that meets other qualifying sustainability criteria:
88.27

Points earned for indicator OP 10.4:
0.44

Notes about the information provided for this credit:

Notes about cleaning purchasing process:

  • Amherst College uses three cleaning suppliers: Kellco, NextGen, and Hillyard.
  • For each supplier, we received a summarized invoice that includes all purchases made within a year-long time frame. The performance timelines were January - December 2023 for Kellco; April 2023 - March 2024 for Hillyard, January - December 2023 for NextGen. The Amherst College facilities team consistently uses these three vendors in a rotation, so we can confidently assume that these data make up an accurate representation of a full calendar year, despite the differences in performance year. 
  • For each invoice, we first tagged which products to include in this calculation.
  • We then evaluated each product for certification by preferable and other sustainability criteria based on STARS guidance. 

Notes about electronics purchasing evaluation:

  • Amherst College uses three main electronics vendors: SHI International, a large reseller, through which we buy Lenovo laptops and peripherals; ConvergeOne from whom we buy most of our networking switches and wireless access points; and Apple, from whom we buy many laptops, desktops, and peripherals. 
  • We received summarized invoices from each vendor for all purchases Amherst College made between July 2022 to June 2023. 
  • We started by tagging which products to include in this calculation. 
  • We then evaluated each product for certification by preferable and other sustainability criteria based on STARS guidance. 
  • Apple products were sourced from both Apple and Verizon and item prices were not included in the data we received. To determine the amount of money spent on Apple products, we based prices on current prices displayed on the Apple and Verizon websites. If a product was no longer purchaseble on either of these websites, we estimated the price using the closest product available on the website (i.e. Amherst bought multiple 5th generation iPads last year. Since you can no longer purchase the 5th generation iPad through Apple or Verizon, we used the currently available 10th generation iPad as an estimated price). 

Notes about furniture purchasing:

  • Amherst College purchased from 6 furniture vendors from January to July 2024.
  • First, we tallied the total amount spent at each vendor.
  • Finally, we reviewed the sustainability policies of each company to determine whether they fell into the preferable or other sustainability criteria categories. 

Additional documentation for this credit:
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The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.