Buying Green...Buying Smart Phase II - Conference Summary

October 20, 2010, MetroCenter Auditorium, Oakland, CA

Welcoming Remarks

On October 20, 2010, the Association of Bay Area Governments and the San Francisco Estuary Partnership hosted the second in a planned series of workshops on Sustainable Purchasing. The program was developed in partnership with the Responsible Purchasing Network (RPN). RPN Director Alicia Culver facilitated and co-hosted the event.

The program, which focused on sustainable policies, programs, and prioritization, consisted of panels with purchasers from around the Bay Area, and a prioritization exercise. Panelists discussed the rationale behind their policies, how their programs operate, and the resources that are available to public purchasers. Experts on various product categories, including office supplies, lighting, cleaning products, food serve ware and vehicles/fleet maintenance led informal discussions over lunch.

Brief descriptions of each panel follow with links to presentation slides. For the Registration and Speaker list, click here.

Sustainable Purchasing Policies

Panelists from three Bay Area jurisdictions described the important elements of their sustainable purchasing policy, including strengths and weaknesses, and the process they went through to get it adopted and implemented.

Moderator: Rachel Balsley, StopWaste.Org
Panelists:

  • Julie Weiss, City of Palo Alto
  • William Shaw, Santa Clara County
  • Mary Bell Austin, San Mateo County
View/Download Presentation Slides

Sustainable Purchasing Programs

This panel highlighted the important elements of three jurisdictions' sustainable purchasing programs and discussed the most successful and challenging aspects of each program.

Moderator: Karen Cook, Alameda County
Panelists:

  • Linden Skjeie, City of San Jose
  • Chris Geiger, City and County of San Francisco
  • Steve Lederer, Napa County
View/Download Presentation Slides

View/Download Presentation Recording (192 mb)

Sustainable Purchasing Resources

This panel's three speakers each described a valuable sustainable purchasing resource they have been involved with developing. Attendees were invited to discuss their need for sustainable purchasing resources.

Moderator: Susan Kinsella, Conservatree and Green Purchasing Institute
Panelists:

  • Tina Yoke, City of Mountain View and Lani Lee Ho, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority: Public EPP System (PEPPS).
  • Jessian Choy, City and County of San Francisco: SF Approved List.
  • Phillip Kobernick, Responsible Purchasing Network: RPN's membership resources.
View/Download Presentation Slides

View/Download Presentation Recording (197 mb)

Sustainable Purchasing Prioritization and Collaboration

RPN Director, Alicia Culver, led a facilitated prioritization exercise to demonstrate a process jurisdictions and institutions can use to choose product categories to work on based on the greatest sustainability and economic benefits.

Download recording (.wmv 156mb)

Thanks to all of the speakers, Sustainable Purchasing working group members, and the entire team at the Responsible Purchasing Network.

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