Contract-Specific EPP Guidance
Each of the product or service categories below provides some background information to help prioritize and promote environmentally preferable products, links to more detailed fact sheets and resources for the product category, model contract specifications that you can adopt and adapt for your own use and, where available, links to credible certification or labeling programs. In some instances, we have also provided links to case studies on institutions that have successfully adopted environmental specifications.
General Notes
- Make sure your specifications are objective and verifiable. Don’t just specify “reduced environmental impact” (or worse still “green”) – choose specific attributes, such as biodegradability, recycled content, mercury-free, non-hazardous under RCRA—then specify exactly what you are looking for. Even if you are stating a preference rather than a requirement, be specific – detail the percentage of recycled content you are looking for, the biodegradation factor you require, and so forth. Many of these may be found in our product specifications.
- Make sure you communicate clearly about your contract specifications. For instance, if you require a “mercury-free” chemical reagent, many vendors may interpret this to mean no mercury in excess of 1% (the level that triggers MSDS disclosure). If you mean that the product cannot contain any contaminant mercury, you will need to specify a different level (i.e. down to 1 ppb). You will also need to indicate how the mercury content must be verified – by indicating if independent laboratory testing results or certificates of analysis are required. Bidder and vendor conferences are a good way to make sure everyone understands your precise specifications prior to submitting bids. These need not be elaborate and may be conducted by phone.
- As the environmental purchasing movement expands, many manufacturers and vendors make environmental claims about their products that can be difficult to assess. The US Federal Trade Commission has provided Guidance for Consumers on evaluating environmental claims and has also published Guidelines for Manufacturers and Vendors on making environmental claims. In addition, the use of clear and definite specification standards that require objective proof will do much to weed out questionable environmental claims.
For more information on environmental purchasing programs, resources, and implementation, see Practice Greenhealth’s EPP Overview
General EPP Policies and Contract Language
By setting general conditions in all contracts – for example, specifications that require minimal or reusable packaging, compel vendors to disclose the presence of certain chemicals, or require that bid submissions be presented in an environmentally responsible way—you can ensure that all your contracts educate vendors about the value you place on environmental improvement, and about steps they can take to green their operations.
Company environmental performance: Some purchasers ask all vendors to fill out a one-time comprehensive environmental questionnaire to qualify for all future bids. This can greatly reduce the work required of bidders for each solicitation, but requires purchasers to keep an up-to-date database to screen vendors. Others develop a set of boilerplate questions/requirements about vendors’ company-wide environmental efforts that reappear in every solicitation.
General/baseline product or service requirements: By adopting certain comprehensive standards, such as the Energy Star energy efficiency standards, or the EPA’s Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines for recycled content as the baseline requirement for all contracts where such standards apply, you can make a blanket improvement in many contract categories at once. You can specify this requirement in boilerplate language that is included in every contract RFP.
Product-level disclosure and/or preferences: If your organization has decided to address specific chemicals – mercury, phthalates – or classes of such chemicals – heavy metals, carcinogens, reproductive toxins – through your purchasing initiatives, you will want to develop a product-level template that requires disclosure of these substances for all products offered on a contract bid. Developing a template to use for all product classes can help reduce bidder pushback by creating a universal expectation that your company will not accept bids without this disclosure information. It will allow you to clearly show vendors why you have preferred, or rejected, certain bids based on their disclosures and your policies.
General EPP Contract Criteria
The general EPP policies and contract language below may be more exhaustive than most facilities need, since they were developed and used by government entities with extensive environmentally preferable purchasing programs – but all contain very useful detailed language that you can use as you build your own policies and contract language.
- Alameda County (CA) Stop Waste Program
General EPP Product Guides
- EPA EPP Database – Allows or searches of RFPs, contracts, case studies by product and service category
- CPG Supplier Database – can be searched by product type, product, supplier, state, and several other aspects
Products by Category (alphabetical)
The following is an admittedly partial list of contract categories for which Practice Greenhealth has developed resource lists and recommendations, including specification language in many cases.
Each category page identifies issues of concern and provides resources Practice Greenhealth has found useful in working with hospitals, health systems, and GPOs. We hope health care purchasers will find the information useful in identifying and pursuing contract changes in one or many of these categories.
If you have suggestions for additional or alternative resources, please send them to h2e@h2e-online.org.
- Paper – Janitorial, Packaging, Misc.
- Vendor Reporting Requirements
Practice Greenhealth thanks its EPP Program supporters for their contributions to the creation of these resources.
    
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