Pennsylvania's deep roots in the green purchasing community are about to blossom into another green renaissance. Under the leadership of Governor Edward G. Rendell, Pennsylvania is renewing focus of its nearly $2 billion in purchasing power toward buying more environmentally preferable products.

"Green purchasing is vitally important to Pennsylvanians in many ways," says Department of General Services Secretary James P. Creedon, whose agency is taking the lead. "Not only does green purchasing protect our environment and preserve it for future generations, it is yet another way we can help in job creation."

Back in 1988, Pennsylvania first emerged as a clear leader in the green purchasing field when a Commonwealth recycling law, Act 101, required Pennsylvania agencies to meet tough recycling goals. It also required agencies to buy recycled-content products and included a 5 percent price preference on green purchases.

The Pennsylvania Department of General Services (DGS), working closely with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), built an impressive program to meet the Act 101 purchasing requirements. It included adopting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recycled content recommendations, adding recycled-content requirements to many state contracts and maintaining a list of recycled-content products available to state agencies.

Over the next two decades, as green purchasing expanded beyond its initial focus on recycled content, Pennsylvania also incorporated considerations such as energy and water efficiency into its green purchasing program. With increased political interest in bio-based fuels and renewable energy, Pennsylvania also began using its purchasing power to support those initiatives.

Revamped green procurement policy

As the rest of the country catches up with Pennsylvania's early successes, the Commonwealth is relaunching its green purchasing efforts. Over the past several months, purchasing officials have revamped the Commonwealth Procurement Handbook to include additional green procurement requirements; developed new tools to ensure buyers are considering the environmental impacts of their purchasing decisions including a new website dedicated to green procurement; and designated a Green Procurement Manager to coordinate the effort.

Pennsylvania's revamped green procurement policy clearly defines the renewed emphasis on going green. The policy acknowledges the positive impact the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania can make on the environment and human health through its procurement decisions. The policy states: "It is the intent of the Department of General Services to integrate environmental considerations into every aspect of procurement."

Most significantly, the policy requires an environmental preference screen before every solicitation to determine the "availability and competitiveness" of environmentally preferable alternatives.

The resulting contract carries only the environmentally preferable options if they are available and price-comparable to competing products. If the environmentally preferable alternatives are available and practical, but not necessarily price-comparable, the contracts include both the traditional and clearly identified environmentally preferable options.

In addition to reinforcing the Commonwealth's historic strength buying recycled-content products, the policy also emphasizes the importance of considering additional environmental attributes, including:

• maximizing post-consumer and total recycled content

• minimizing waste

• conserving energy and water

• reducing toxic material use

• promoting reusable and recyclable products

• minimizing global warming pollution (greenhouse gas emissions)

The policy also requires expansion of lifecycle costing to include environmental and social impacts in addition to consideration of traditional total cost of ownership. Purchasing agents are also required to maximize their green purchases as a percentage of total purchases, and agencies must prepare annual reports documenting their green purchases. Suppliers are encouraged to provide annual reports documenting the sales and environmental benefits of the Commonwealth's environmentally preferable purchases.