Indiana State University
OP-11: Sustainable Procurement

"ISU Purchasing’s role is to support campus wide sustainability through the communications of guidelines, information, and by providing resources that will minimize any negative impact on society and the environment to the greatest extent possible. ISU Purchasing is developing and maintaining information on our web site about environmentally and socially preferable products and services and will communicate, to the various departments, University policy in regards to sustainability. We will promote the three R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle.  Purchasing & Central Receiving manages all surplus items at the University.  From inception we have relocated reusable items back out on campus, as items have become available. For at least the last fifteen years we have hosted auctions where we sell items no-longer of use to the University.  The result has been to reduce the disposal costs and landfill volume and the auctions extend the useful life of items through their reuse.  Additionally, we recycle items that might have little appeal in the auction. Purchasing encourages the use of durable and reusable products, giving some weight to the best long-term value when selecting products. Purchasing will be looking at the various vendors’ abilities to receive their products back for recycling at the end of their useful life.  Examples being: carpeting, asphalt, oil, batteries, electronics, and toner cartridges. Procurement in bulk or concentrated form will be encouraged in an effort to minimize our impact on transportation resources. ISU Purchasing has begun to encourage the broader long term view in the procurement of items such as printers, copiers, and fax machines that have the capability of duplex printing and the ability to cut paper consumption in half. ISU Purchasing encourages the sending and storing of documents electronically, again saving on paper usage. ISU Purchasing would encourages the use of hybrid and alternative renewable fuel vehicles, the generation of renewable energy sources, energy efficient “Energy Star” rated electronics, and energy efficient Leeds certified buildings. ISU Purchasing is making every effort to secure contracts with vendors that are socially and environmentally conscientious and certified green whenever possible. ISU is committed to preserving the environment and encouraging sustainability. In order to promote sustainability, all computers purchased by the University must meet the standard below. Standard Lenovo computers on the ISU website are EPEAT gold and meet the standard below."

"Chemical Procurement 1. Consult with stockroom personnel or lab supervisor to see if the chemcial is already available for use and suitable for your application. Ordering of chemicals already on hand is wasteful. 2. Acceptance of any “donated” chemical materials requires approval by the Office of Environmental Safety prior to the material’s arrival on campus. “Free” chemicals often become very expensive items for disposal later. 3. The decision to purchase a chemical is a commitment to handle and use the chemical properly from initial receipt to final disposal. 4. Before a chemical is ordered, the user must determine that appropriate containment, storage and personal protective equipment are available for use. 5. Personnel responsible for receiving chemical shipments should be knowledgeable of the proper procedures for receiving chemicals. Packages should not be accepted without proper identifying labels, safety data sheets (initial shipments of an item should include an SDS. Subsequent shipments may or may not include an SDS) and packaging in accordance with all appropriate shipping and packaging regulations. Date all containers upon receipt. 6. Enter chemical identification into inventory and ensure that the safety data sheet is available to laboratory staff. "

Copied from the guidelines of "ISU Purchasings Role in Sustainability": "ISU is committed to preserving the environment and encouraging sustainability. In order to promote sustainability, all computers purchased by the University must meet the standard below. Standard Lenovo computers on the ISU website are EPEAT gold and meet the standard below. All desktops, laptops, and computer monitors purchased by ISU are required to have achieved Silver registration or higher in the EPEAT system. EPEAT is a procurement tool designed to help large volume purchasers evaluate, compare, and select electronic products based upon their environmental attributes as specified in the consensus-based IEEE Standard for the Environmental Assessment of Personal Computer Products (IEEE 1680.1). The EPEAT registration criteria and a database of all registered products are provided at http://www.epeat.net."

There are sustainability purchasing criteria, but Sodexo for Indiana State University has not published those evaluations.