Sustainable Purchasing

What You Can Do

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) is an important step toward making sustainability a reality on our campus. EPP is a strategy that seeks to procure products and services with a reduced or minimal environmental impact as compared to other similar products/services that serve the same purpose.

EPP considerations include:

reduction of energy consumption, toxicity, air and water pollution impact
materials efficiency (such as packaging)
minimizing disposal impact at the end of useful life

What To Look For

Environmentally preferable products are generally:

Less toxic
Minimally polluting
More energy efficient
With higher recycled content
With less packaging

Additional Resources

Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
US EPA Environmentally Preferable Purchasing site
Energy Star website