Purchasing
Green purchasing offers real opportunities for reducing the environmental impacts of the goods and services we buy. Cumbrian businesses can use their own purchasing power to buy a greater portion of their goods and services from local green suppliers.
CGBF members are committed to greening the supply chain and strengthening local markets. Our open forum is there for members to discuss the merits or otherwise of products and services and share best practice on purchasing decisions.
Join CGBF to find out more
One of you biggest overheads
Purchasing is a substantial overhead for most businesses; from small items such as stationery, light bulbs, toilet rolls and detergents, through to larger products like furniture and equipment.
Every purchasing decision involves environmental impacts in terms of resource depletion, air and water pollution and waste disposal.
- all require materials, energy and water in their manufacture
- most production processes generate waste
Cradle to Grave - Life Cycle Assessment
Products which are less damaging to the environment are those which minimise the impacts. One way of measuring impacts from ‘cradle to grave’ is known as life cycle assessment (LCA). A growing number of organisations now use LCA information in purchasing decisions, as a way of ensuring that the products they buy involve less environmental impacts than other products which perform the same function.
The European eco-label scheme, is specifically designed to provide environmental information on a wide range of products. Materials input, energy, water and the potential for recycling are all included in the assessment. Sustainability lies at the heart of the eco-labelling scheme. Some products have been banned altogether. For example, Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, once used widely in refrigerators and aerosols, are now banned because they destroy the ozone layer. Other products, such as hardwoods from tropical areas are actively discouraged, not just because of the ecological damage to the world’s rainforests, but because the earth is rapidly losing one of its biggest oxygen banks. The Amazon is often called ‘the lungs of the earth’.
As a major purchaser of materials and services, businesses are in a strong position to influence the growth of environment-friendly products. But purchasing decisions should also take account of other issues. Buying from local suppliers sustains the local economy, reduces the environmental costs of transportation and helps keep small businesses alive.
Greener purchasing...
There is much scope to extend environment-friendly purchasing. Examples of products which don’t cost the earth include the following:
- energy-saving light bulbs - are cheaper in the long run, use less electricity and produce less carbon dioxide emissions
- detergents - those which are low in phosphates are less polluting to the aquatic environment
- softwood furniture - don’t come from rainforests but from sustainable forests, where felled trees are replaced with new growth
- recycled paper - made from waste paper and board reduces the pressure on landfill
- Returnable toner cartridges - in photocopiers saves materials, manufacture and disposal costs
- organic food - reduces the use of pesticides and herbicides which pollute local water resources
- bulk delivery and returnable containers - means less transport, packaging and less waste
Prepare a list of items which are purchased on a regular basis. Check out whether those products are:
- available locally - within Cumbria
- energy or water efficient - low energy light bulbs or water-efficient dishwashers
- from renewable resources - recycled paper, softwood furnishings
- recoverable or recyclable - bulk containers, toner cartridges
- expensive in term of disposal costs - over-packaged or containing hazardous chemicals
Talk to suppliers about their environmental policy and what procedures they use to ensure their products have low environmental impacts.
Sustainable Purchasing - Useful links and tools
CGBF does not endorse any particular product or service on our website and members should always shop around for best green buys
Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) – including ‘base code’
The Electronic Industry Code of Conduct
Rainforest Alliance
Forestry Stewardship Council
A selection of eco/sustainability labels
Sustainable Procurement Information Network
Includes an outline of a number of different tools
http://www.s-p-i-n.co.uk/toolkit.asp
