Purchasing
All university personnel have the ability to contribute to Stanford’s sustainability goals by purchasing environmentally preferred products (EPP). In 2018, the university set a target to achieve Zero Waste - defined as 90% diversion from the landfill or higher - by 2030. Through EPP, our campus community can help minimize waste, pollution, and emissions associated with campus purchases.
With an annual spend of 2.8 billion dollars on goods and services, responsible purchasing is paramount to achieving Stanford's Zero Waste goal. The objects we buy today that cannot be (re)used, recycled, or composted will end up in the landfill tomorrow.
Beyond supporting zero waste, sustainable purchases help to minimize harm to humans and the environment when compared to competing goods and services that serve the same purpose. Responsible purchasers take a holistic view when selecting products or services, considering not only functionality, price, quality and availability, but also the product's effect on the environment, human health, and society.
Responsible Purchasing Guidelines
Procurement Services and Office of Sustainability have developed a set of Responsible Purchasing Guidelines to provide a framework for guiding and encouraging campus consumers to include social and environmental impacts in their purchasing decisions. These guidelines were updated in 2019 to reflect the university's increased commitment to zero waste and the industry's progress in sustainability. The guidelines define responsible purchasing and articulate its benefits, outline Procurement Services' commitment to supporting sustainability, offer questions to consider when making a purchase, and provide specific guidance for major spend categories.
Search Tools
We are piloting two search tools to ease finding and purchasing of sustainable products. Try one or both out to see if they help you find the products you're looking for.
- Ecomedes Lookup Tool
The Ecomedes look-up site is a comprehensive database that houses only the products that meet the Responsible Purchasing Guidelines for specific spend categories. By searching this site, purchasers can choose from a wide selection of options, while at the same time have confidence that the products they select meet the guidelines. Once a product has been selected, the purchaser will need to navigate to Stanford's iProcurement website to complete the purchase.
- Amazon Sustainable Products Lists
These shopping lists, housed in Stanford's Amazon for Business iProcurement platform, focus on office and breakroom supplies. Curated by the Office of Sustainability, the lists provide a select collection of items that meet the Responsible Purchasing Guidelines. Although they are not comprehensive of all products the meet the guidelines, they make purchasing sustainable products easy since they are intergrated into the Amazon for Business platform. To access the Sustainability lists, log in to Amazon for Business via Stanford’s Oracle iProcurement platform. Once logged in, copy and paste the links below into your browser’s URL bar:
- Office supplies: a.co/95RFDE0
- Breakroom supplies: a.co/1zoHiSn
CONTACT
Procurement Services: Cassandra Cabral, Business Relationships Generalist, Procurement Services (ccabral@stanford.edu)