Purpose: To minimize the City’s impact on the environment and on human health by choosing to purchase products that have few or no toxic ingredients, are energy efficient, are powered by renewable sources of energy, and are recycled, recyclable, or remanufactured.

On December 2007, the City of Phoenix approved an Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Resolution to commit to incorporating green products and services into city contracts.

Under this program, Phoenix will:

1. Integrate contract provisions for sustainable products and services;

2. Base buying decisions on price, performance, and environmental impacts over the lifecycle of the product or service;

3. Reward manufacturers & vendors whose products & services reduce environmental & health impacts; and

4. Encourage other buyers & consumers to adopt similar programs.

Phoenix maintains a website with detailed information on the City’s progress towards Environmentally Preferable Purchasing. The City updates this site as purchasing contracts are established for EPP products and services in a range of commodity groups, including building materials, services and fixtures; fleets, equipment and aircraft; office equipment and furniture; pesticides; appliances; janitorial products; and more.

Public Outreach & Education:

The City has complied many resources to encourage water conservation, energy efficiency, transportation alternatives, green building, and more, which are published on their website. They collect feedback from the public through an online survey in order to assess and improve the usefulness of the EPP website.

The City’s Channel 11 produced a film capturing the product evaluation process for a new environmentally friendly cleaning product. This product replaced a variety of products, streamlining operations and saving almost $11,000 annually, but the City faced implementation challenges in reaching multiple divisions with the new information. The film helped promote the City’s efforts and raised awareness of the EPP program overall.

Phoenix has experienced many positive results through the EPP program in both cost savings and reduced environmental impact. Examples include:

• The Information Technology and Finance Departments helped purchase desktop computers, laptops and monitors that meet Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Silver certification environmental standards. As a result, from July 2006 to December 2007, the city has reduced energy use by 3,744,969 kWh (enough electricity to power 330 households annually); reduced greenhouse gases equivalent to removing 233 cars from the road per year; reduced 12.7 tons of hazardous waste; avoided 769 pounds of toxic materials; and saved $324,491. In 2007, the city was awarded an EPA Green Electronics Champion Award for these computer purchases.

• The Public Works Department reduced pesticide spraying by 99% through an Integrated Pest Management contract, with no increase in costs or in pest populations.

• The Street Transportation team decreased the total number of office items purchased by 40%, and saved $8,400 through a switch to reusable and recycled content office products.

• The City Clerk Department Print Shop, through a switch from petroleum-based inks to vegetable-based, has reduced volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions by 38%, increased renewable resource content to 75%, and saves $920/year.

• The Phoenix Convention Center switched to recycled content janitorial paper products, saving 11,000 gallons of water, 5,200 lbs of waste, and 7 tons of CO2 through with cleaner manufacturing processes. These products were also lower priced than the previous choices.