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The Postal Service defines environmentally preferable products (EPPs) as sustainable product alternatives for office, electronics, lighting, cleaning, and maintenance/repair/operational (MRO) products which contain environmentally preferable ingredients and efficient performance features that may help the Postal Service reduce natural resource use and waste generation, lower utility costs at facilities, and operate with less environmental impact and a lower carbon footprint. EPPs are categorized into five focus categories:
- Recycled Content: Product (not packaging) contains any percentage of pre-consumer or post-consumer recycled content materials.
- Bio-Based Content: Product (not packaging) contains bio-based content sufficient to earn at least one of the following:
- Energy-efficient: Product contains energy-efficient attributes and has earned one or more of the following Postal Service accepted certifications/designations:
- Water-efficient: Product contains water-efficient attributes and has earned U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) WaterSense Certification.
- Certified to a Postal Service accepted product sustainability/eco-label standard: Product is certified to one or more of the Postal Service accepted product sustainability/eco-label standards listed at http://blue.usps.gov/sustainability/green_purchasing.htm.* This list contains sustainability/eco-label standards that are internationally recognized, credible, and relevant to Postal Service purchases. The Postal Service does not rank or provide preference to competing sustainability/eco-label standards.
Note: The Postal Service Office of Sustainability maintains this list.
In eBuy2, EPPs are highlighted with a green leaf icon and can be searched for by using the “Buy EPP” search functionality. In the more detailed product information views, there are corresponding icons for each of the five qualifying EPP categories (listed above) that indicate why the item is environmentally preferable.
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