Green Purchasing

Green purchasing is a central part of the Postal Service’s corporate-wide sustainability program. For more than a decade, USPS has been a leader in preventing pollution and reducing waste by use of nonhazardous and environmentally preferable chemicals and products.

In 2008, the Postal Service formed a Green Purchasing Team. The team, which included supplier representatives, developed the USPS Green Purchasing Plan 2008–2010, which lays out a number of environmental criteria to be considered when buying green, selling green and being green. The USPS Green Purchasing Team has actively worked to educate and inform customers and suppliers about the Postal Service’s Green Purchasing Plan.

The plan calls for evaluating “environmentally preferable” products as part of USPS purchasing decisions ― along with price, quality and delivery standards: Examples include products made from recycled content or renewable resources, eco-label certified (i.e., Green Seal and EcoLogo) products, Energy Star and EPEAT registered electronics, water-conserving products, and products free of targeted hazardous chemicals.

We are committed to working with our suppliers to encourage and reward sustainable business practices. In 2008, USPS added a supplier sustainability excellence award to our Supplier Performance Award program.

Additionally, the Postal Service has centralized its purchase of environmental services, including hazardous waste management, environmental consulting, storage tank services, recycling, and vehicle washing services that eliminate wastewater discharge. This has promoted standardization, increased cost savings and supports our commitment to environmentally responsible supply chains.

The White House recognized USPS 2008 efforts with a White House Closing the Circle Award for our Green Purchasing Team activities, including development of the national Green Purchasing Plan.

The Postal Service received honorable mention for our Lead-Free Wheel Weight Program. This program has the potential to prevent 17 tons of lead from entering the environment by outfitting Postal Service vehicles across the country with lead-free wheel weights.

We have also received recognition for tapping into a diverse group of suppliers in the competitive market place who also assist us in reducing our consumption of natural resources and energy, emissions into air, water and soil, as well as generation of waste and noise. This commitment to supplier diversity is recognized in the following ways:

• America’s Top Government Agency for Multicultural Business Opportunities ― DiversityBusiness.com (winner for the fourth year in a row).
• Top 25 Women Impacting Diversity ― Diversity Plus Magazine.
• Featured article ― “First Ladies of Supplier Diversity” ― Women’s Enterprise, WEUSA Magazine
• Recognition of USPS commitment to supplier diversity ― industry trade journals: Savoy Professional and DiversityPlus.

The key to the success of any program is the ability to measure its accomplishment. Tracking environmentally preferable purchases ― there are more than 15,000 products available to 34,000 facilities ― is no easy task. To do it, we established a new tracking system for all national supply contractors. We also purchased many green products, including re-refined oil, retread tires, recycled antifreeze, non-hazardous chemical alternatives, and Energy Star and EPEAT registered electronic products.

For that reason, the Postal Service dramatically expanded its tracking of recycled content purchases covering five different materials in 2008 ― paper, metal, rubber, plastic and Tyvek.

Examples of some of our green purchases in FY 2008 include $74 million in remanufactured auto parts and industrial equipment, and more than $27.4 million on recycled content cardboard boxes to move mail through our processing and delivery facilities. We also spent $9.4 million on retread tires, an additional $1 million on other recycled content tires and $8.4 million on environmentally preferable custodial products.