Purchasing and Negotiation Training

Robert Menard, Certified Purchasing Professional, Certified Professional Purchasing Consultant

Editor’s note: This is Part IV in a series of eight that will explore Sustainability and green purchasing’s leadership role.  Part I explains how Sustainability is driven by the cost savings of green purchasing, Part II deals with the heart of Sustainability, energy and fuels, and Part III with the 3Rs of Reduce/Reuse/ Recycle.  

In concert with the American Purchasing Society, I am developing a green procurement course that will have far more extensive material available in online, print, and portable digital media.  We will update quarterly so companies can build on successes.  We will offer discounts to those who sign up early so send me an email stating your interest and I’ll respond with particulars.

Construction and facilities are as likely as not to be included under purchasing’s responsibilities.  It is also not uncommon to have purchasing and facilities to be superior, subordinate, or co-equal to each other.  Since the path is not clearly defined, how does green procurement relate to Sustainability in construction and facilities?  This question has particular affection for me, a civil engineeer by undergraduate education, a former facilities manager, and a long time purchasing pro.

Construction is almost always a purchased service and out of the ordinary for most organizations.  It poses a daunting impediment to doing business as usual.  Even those companies engaged in a continuing construction programs should be aware of major Sustainability initiatives in which green purchasing practices can apply.  

For instance the United States Green Building Code (USGBC) has established a Sustainability rating system, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.  LEED is fairly universal, and unlike of most other Sustainability disciplines, has less controversy except for intra-industry squabbling.  Make certain that your design professionals and construction contractors are aware of and complying with LEED standards.  

Some of the Sustainable measures prescribed by LEED include

• Roof top gardens
• Permeable pavement
• Low Impact Development measures such as
  • Storm water run-off containment and management
  • Reuse as irrigation, fire protection, or cooling or further treatment
• Use of alternative technologies like photovoltaic technologies
• Landscaping techniques and materials such as using run-off and waste water for irrigation 

Building materials themselves can be more or less green.  Consider the interesting cases of the world’s #1 most used man-made material, concrete and #1 most consumed material, water.  

Concrete is composed of about 85% sand & gravel 15% cement, and water.  Produced at a rate of about 25 billion tons per year and growing, concrete requires a tremendous amount of energy to produce, transport, and maintain.  The cement is a great source of CO₂ emissions, but how does that work out over its life time?  Concrete is not fully recognized by the any existing standards for its durability.  Put in the language of Sustainability, its Life Cycle Assessment has yet to be fully recognized.  

To make the point consider this one amazing statistic: A typical family car produces 11,760 lbs of CO2 per year.  The concrete driveway it parks on, measuring approximately 24’ X 50’ produced 5,880 lbs of CO₂ the one time its cement was manufactured.  The car produces twice as much CO₂ every year.  And, over a 30 year life span of the driveway, the concrete’s contribution to GHG shrinks to less than 200 pounds per year, an amazing 59 times less that the car every year. 

Click here for online or CD/print media versions of "Green Purchasing" course

The #1 material consumed by humanity is water.  Not so coincidentally, it is also the # 1 material wasted by humanity.  Human life depends upon water so we have the ultimate motivation to conserve and preserve it. 

The average US citizen consumes about 1,200 gallons of water per capita per day but only a fraction of that for personal use.  A typical household of four uses 260 gallons of water each day or 65 gallons each person.  So where does the other 1,135 gallons go?  It is consumed by economic activity.  

Two illustrative examples of economic activity make the point. It takes more than 20 gallons (143.35 pounds) of water to manufacture only a pound of plastic and 100 gallons (835 pounds) to produce one pound of cotton.  

In periods of heavy rains, combined sewer overflow (CSO) is more likely to occur as handling capacity is often exceeded.  Surcharges of storm water, by design in older systems, or via excess of capacity in newer systems, create expensive, wasteful, and environmentally nasty CSO. Both storm run off (storm sewer) and waste products (sanitary sewer) are conducted by separate sewer lines but tend to mix together when there is too much water to handle.  The results of CSO are wasteful and foul; rainwater runoff is treated to the same degree and nearly the same expense as raw sewage and/or storm water becomes contaminated with sanitary waste and pollutes water ways.  

As to facilities management, there are many Sustainability gains green procurement can achieve through principles of energy conservation, 3Rs, and associated cost savings.  We in purchasing are probably already familiar with many of the measures such as buying Energy Star appliances and equipment. 

We may not be familiar with the many practical things that save money such as the “economizer” cycle on HVAC equipment that brings in outside air when it can be used for heating or cooling thereby reducing energy consumption and costs.  

Constant advances in technology are forcing down the price of photovoltaic cells (PV), the heart of active solar energy – it is getting better, more effective, and cheaper.  The Sustainability gains are obvious.  Organizations can use their solar energy for such low level lighting, domestic hot water, isolated gates, warning signs, and to replace purchased electric. 

Many more tips and practices will soon be available in a course under development for green purchasing.  We will cite the successes of well known companies like Home Depot which has saved over one quarter of a billion dollars with green procurement at its facilities.  Kohl’s depatment stores is using roof top solar panels to decrease its electric bills. 

As with most all other Sustainability endeavors, construction and facilities are two shining examples that dispel the myth that green purchasing costs money.  The measures cited above are but a few of the scores in the coming course that show that green procurement is just good business.