the current state of green procurement trends within higher education executive summary 2009 naep...

The Current State of Green Procurement Trends within Higher Education

Executive Summary

2009 NAEP Green Procurement Survey Results Sponsored by:

2009 Green Procurement Survey Sponsored by:

• Brian YeomanDirector of Sustainable Leadership, [email protected]

www1.naepnet.org/joomla/sustain

• Eric ZoetmulderDirector, Product Marketing, [email protected]

www.sciquest.com/web/green

Contact Information


Agenda

• Introduction

• Summary of Key Findings– Institutional Commitment– Focus of the Procurement System– Institutional Challenges & Priorities– Measuring Success

• Talking About an Opportunity!


Goals of the Survey

Identify the current state of Green Procurement and trends within Higher Education

Create a baseline for annual replicable surveys to measure progress


Survey Demographics

* The NAEP 2009 Green Procurement Survey was sent to 4,177 individuals who work at 1,246 NAEP Member institutions during February 2009. 101 unique institutions responded, 125 Individuals replied

Institution Size

Large >10,000 FTE

Small <10,000 FTE

Institution Type

54% 46% 62%38%

Private Public

Institutions: 101 (8.1%)*


Agenda

• Introduction




Institutional Commitment

Formal Green Procurement policies are gaining momentum,but in most institutions still need to become reality.

Q: Does Your Campus have a Sustainability Plan?Q: Do you have a formal Green Procurement Policy?Q: Do you have a Climate Action Plan?

Don’t Know

0% 25% 50% 75%100%

62%

24%

10%

6%

Yes

Not Yet

No

24%

48%

26%

2%

24%

28%

22%

26%


• Sustainability plans are twice as likely to exist as are Climate action plans and formal green purchasing policies

• Today 24% have a green purchasing policy in place• In less than a year an additional 48% will have a green purchasing policy in

place or 72% of the total– This is the hottest thing on campus after stimulus sightings!

• Will they really get there? There is a whole lot of waiting going on with the respondents regarding green purchasing policy adoption (basically 50% is waiting)

• 26% have no plans at all for Green Procurement and 26% don’t know whether their institution has a Climate Action Plan?

We are at the Tipping Point!


• Signing the American College & University President’s Climate Commitment and membership of AASHE are not universal commitments

• AASHE membership is a great indicator of whether there will be a green purchasing policy, but only 25% are members and 43% don’t know if they are

• There is a very high degree of correlation between being an ACUPCC signatory and having a green purchasing policy as part of the institution’s sustainability plan

• When an institution is a member of both efforts it is a virtual lock that green purchasing policies exist and are a part of a larger whole

AASHE & ACUPCC Correlation


Drivers of Institutional Sustainability

The three drivers for sustainability initiatives are: “do the right thing”, reducing carbon footprint, and reducing consumption

0% 25% 50% 75%100%

86%

70%

14%

“Do the right thing”

Improve Image

Reduce Liability

74%

58%

12%

70%

33%

Reduce Carbon

Reduce Costs

Retain Employees

Reduce Consumption

Social Justice

16%Other

Other reasons mentioned:

• Attract & Retain Students

• Student Pressure

Q: What are the main drivers for your sustainability initiatives?


• “doing the right thing” makes sense:– The number of institutions with a sustainability plan = the number of

institutions that believe doing the right thing is a key driver

• “reducing the carbon footprint” does not:– Only 52% of institutions have a Climate Action plan, though 74% believe it is a

key driver– Do respondents truly understand Climate Action Plans?

• “improve the institutional image” is high on the list– The ‘economic’ driver is very important to make the initial business case, but

will it lead to making decisions based on “plausible deniability”?

• The biggest surprise!! REDUCE COSTS is a key driver for 58% of the institutions

Drivers of Institutional Sustainability


• Prototypically, there are way too many levels or no accountability for sustainability

• Not surprisingly, the most common is the Director level who has to execute

• Interestingly, if you combine the VP and Up levels they mirror the percentage rate of the Director level

Higher Education thinks it is Unique!


Institutional Commitment

Conclusions:1. Green Procurement is at the tipping point and generally

recognized in the sustainability initiatives of the institutions2. Typically 26% of institutions are not committing to anything3. Green Procurement is a critical year away from leaving the

planning phase and ramping up big time for action 4. Most interesting opportunity is the cost reduction identified

in the survey5. Can the action plan succeed with Director level leadership?6. NAEP has a huge education opportunity


Focus of the Procurement System

Most commonly included product categoriesNo surprises!

0% 25% 50% 75%100%

86%

53%

17%

Paper Products

Computers

Logistics

73%

34%

12%

66%

32%

Office Supplies

Office Furnishing

Other

Energy

Food

Other categories mentioned: Janitorial, Cleaning Supplies, Lab Supplies & Construction



Most commonly included service categoriesNo surprises!

0% 25% 50% 75%100%

83%

37%

26%

Recycling

Food Services

Transportation

73%

34%

26%

37%

26%

Cleaning

Landscaping

Facilities Services

Fleet Vehicles

Pest Control

Other categories mentioned: Construction, Lab Equipment

14%Vending

10%Other


• Recycling services are almost always included in the sustainability initiatives

• “Buy recycled policies” however are not widespread and lack enforcement

• The effective rate of these policies is only 32%

• Compared to the other needs, is recycling really the place to focus most?



Focus Conclusions

1. Environmental and economic considerations go hand in hand

2. Green Procurement focus is first and foremost on the ‘office/classroom’

3. Surprisingly, there is limited focus on logistics since 1/3 of carbon emissions happens in transportation

4. Recycling policies are widespread, but importance versus other options to improve is debatable


Institutional Challenges & Priorities

Nothing is very easy until you have done it!

0% 25% 50% 75%100%

10%

Institution with a Green Procurement ProgramInstitution without a Green Procurement Program

33%

• Obtain Executive support for Green Procurement

63% 82%

67% 74%

77% 75%

47% 56%

33% 43%

73% 75%

• Justify costs for Green Procurement

• Measure Progress with Green Procurement

• Change user behavior to focus on sustainability

• Effectively promote certified products and suppliers to end users

• Get suppliers to provide accurate and updated product information

• Validate supplier Green claims

I agree that it is challenging to:


Perception is Reality

• If you have no program in place, it is more challenging to:– Justify the cost for green purchasing– Obtain executive support (though still seen as relatively easy)

• If you have a program in place, it is more challenging to:– change user behavior to focus on sustainability

• Validating supplier green claims and measuring progress are challenges regardless


Institutional Challenges & Priorities

Issues for Green Procurement programs in order of importance

1 Purchasing products that contain ENERGY STAR certification

2 Increasing the total post-consumer recycled content in purchased products

Measurement of green procurement compliance

3 Ensuring that all paper products purchased contain recycled content

Increasing suppliers with eco-label (Green Seal, GREENGUARD)

Reducing total shipments of delivered goods

4 Increasing spend with diversity suppliers

Increasing spend with local suppliers

Energy Star, recycling, and measurement of Green Procurement compliance top the list of most important issues


• What is important?– Most important is Purchasing Energy Star certified products– Least important is Purchasing Energy Star certified products– Followed by increasing the total post consumer recycled content in

purchased products

• These results tells the value of marketing and messaging– Energy Star is clearly known and understood– Perception links recycled products to green purchasing in minds of

many

Perception is Reality Part II


Challenges & Priorities: Conclusions

1. Executives support sustainability initiatives2. Perception is reality for core challenges. 3. Challenges change from getting approval and support to

more implementation related challenges as the programs are started

4. Emerging certification standards are confusing, diffuse, with only Energy Star a clear winner

• Amazingly 39% of respondents make no use of green certifications whatsoever

5. People do what they can do (or what is easy)• Focus is on implementing rules for emerging product standards and

recycling• Less on diversity and transportation where good policies have much

more potential to impact the environment


• Reporting on progress never happens for more than 30% of the respondents with a green purchasing policy in place

• Reporting is a mostly internal affair that occurs primarily at quarterly or longer intervals. This will remain unchanged for the “waiting” institutions adopting a green purchasing policy

Reporting is an Internal Affair


Measuring Success

0% 25% 50% 75%100%

30%

14%

Promote green certified suppliers in search results

Track spend on green products

18%

10%

15%

51%

Promote green products in search results

Filter search to only green products

Track spend on green certified suppliers

None of the above

Most procurement systems are not set up to promote and measure Green Procurement initiatives

Q: Does your procurement system have the capability to do the following?

35%Promote green service providers in search results


Purchasing Systems not up to the job!

• 61% of institutions has no idea where green money is spent• Critical functions such as tracking spend for products and

vendors can be accomplished by less than 15% of the respondents systems if reporting happens, it is mostly a manual task

• Nearly two thirds can not identify green vendors and 5 out of 6 can not identify green products

• 51% of the respondents can not measure anything!• Clearly the infrastructure to support green procurement is

in need of substantive improvement


Agenda

• Introduction




Talk about an Opportunity!

• The survey showed growing support for Green Procurement initiatives

• Institutions are struggling to realize actionable plans, but the ‘ecosystem’ is developing methods and tools to support the needs (slowly)

• Institutions need to implement instruments to validate, promote and measure Green Procurement

• NAEP has an education opportunity and a leadership role in guiding procurement professionals

• NAEP now has a barometer to measure progress in 2010


• Becoming a critical player in your institutions sustainability initiative is the greatest opportunity to leverage your department in the last 40 years

• In less than a year 90% of these respondents will have a formal place at the table because of Green Procurement

• No one else on the campus can make the contributions you can!!

Talk about an Opportunity!

the current state of green procurement trends within higher education executive summary 2009 naep...

Documents

survey demographics

naep member institutions

higher educationcreate

unique institutions

annual replicable surveys

product marketing