Environmentally Preferable Purchasing

1. Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Snohomish County’s Lessons Learned Lisa Dulude Office of Energy & Sustainability Snohomish County Executive’s Office

2. Tips for Getting Started • Support from the top • Executive level support • Presentations and communication with Council early on about why the EPP is important • Make the case • Multiple lenses: economy, environment, equity

3. Tips for Getting Started It ain’t easy being green! • Policy Development • No need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ • What are the ‘triggers’ and ‘caps’ for your policy? • Does it apply to all purchases? • Only purchases over a certain amount? • Our EPP applies to all goods, services, and construction

4. Tips for Getting Started • Policy Development • Balancing price, performance, and the environment • Will you be collecting and tracking ‘green purchasing’ data? • How will the policy be enforced and to what extent? • Emphasis on Life Cycle Cost Assessments (LCCAs) LCCA means “the evaluation of the total cost of an item to the County over its estimated useful life, including costs of selection, acquisition, operation, maintenance, and where applicable, disposal, as far as these costs can reasonably be determined, minus the salvage value at the end of its estimated useful life.”

5. Provide Flexibility Excerpt from Section 8a of EPP: Non-toxic and Least Harmful Chemicals • Toxic chemicals that should not be purchased in any product or service include, but are not limited to: • Volatile organic compounds (VOCs); • Persistent bio-accumulative toxins (PBTs); • Formaldehyde (often found in paint, carpeting, adhesives, furniture, and casework); • Endocrine disrupters such as: • Flame retardants (e.g. polybromidediphenyl ethers (PBDEs) • Pesticides • Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) • Surfactants (contain nonylphenols) • Epoxy (contain Bisphenol A) • Plastics (many contain phthalates and Bisphenol A) • Toxics such as lead, asbestos, and mercury; and • The County will reduce or eliminate the purchase and use of products that contribute to the formation of dioxins and furans.

6. Provide Flexibility 1. Balancing Needs Section 1 & Section 5: Nothing in the policy shall be construed as requiring the procurement of products or services that do not perform adequately for their intended use, exclude adequate competition, or are not available at a reasonable price or in a reasonable period of time. 2. Greatest Extent Feasible Section 1 & Section 8: All of the Guidelines set forth in Section 8 of this policy shall be met to the greatest extent feasible and practicable for the purchase of products and services.

7. Implementation • Phased approach • “Warm-up” period through the end of the year • New form next year to be submitted with purchase requests • Finding/developing language for bids, specs, contracts, etc.

8. Implementation Tools • County’s Green Product Resource Guide • EPP “All Hands” training (Intro to Green Purchasing) • Internal green purchasing site with additional resources listed

9. Implementation Tools

10. Next Steps… • 2014: New form(s) with specific EPP questions that must answered • Individual department meetings and trainings • Working with departments to select a 3-5 items (goods and/or services) to start • Office products & bids, specs, contract language • Continued work with departments and offices • Incorporating EPP into bids, specs, and contract language • Getting more familiar with resources and tools

11. Thank You! Lisa Dulude Snohomish County Energy and Sustainable Development Analyst lisa.dulude@snoco.org 425-388-3968