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21 Jun 05 - purchasing; paper; commencement; zero waste; weddings
** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM **
-- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition
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Forum archive: http://www.nwpcarchive.org
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Excerpted from an article by Rachel Gordon in the 6/18/05 San Francisco
Chronicle:
CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO ENACTS LANDMARK GREEN PURCHASING LAW
On June 17, San Francisco became the first city in the nation to enact a law
that requires the city to take public health and environmental stewardship
into consideration when purchasing products - from toilet paper to
computers.
The law, called the "Environmentally Preferable Purchasing for Commodities"
ordinance, requires city departments to buy products that do as little harm
as possible to people and the Earth. The city makes about $600 million in
purchases a year to supply City Hall, the Hall of Justice, fire and police
stations, the parks and other municipal operations. Mayor Gavin Newsom said
the law "basically says it's better to be safe than sorry... as it relates
to our purchasing powers in the City and County of San Francisco.'' City
officials say one of the goals is for the law to be used as a model for
other jurisdictions. The more that sign on, the more economic incentive
manufacturers will have to make environmentally friendly products.
From now on, San Francisco will look at such things as whether products can
be recycled, whether they pollute the air or water, their energy efficiency
and whether they emit toxic substances. The program has been tested on a
limited basis for the past several years, and officials report that
desirable products are available, and usually don't cost more. As an
example, the city buys 87,000 fluorescent light tubes a year and recently
put in an order for ones produced with the least amount of mercury. The
ordinance will not affect every purchase overnight. Instead, when specific
products come up for bid the regulations may kick in.
The Department of the Environment, working with community groups, technical
experts and other city staff, will set priorities for which products should
be assessed for application of the ordinance. "We may decide as a community
that computers are our next item that we want to look at through the lens of
environmental and public health,'' said Debbie Raphael, the city's toxics
reduction program manager. "Traditionally, we have a list of specifications
we use to decide which computer to buy," she said. "Those specifications do
not include things like how much lead is in them? Can you recycle them? What
is their energy use? What it does not mean is that cost and performance is
ignored. We're expanding the universe of criteria.''
The Department of the Environment will identify products that present
threats to human health and the environment and then identify comparably
priced nontoxic alternatives that city departments will be allowed to buy.
If the product proves too expensive, the department can request a waiver
from the city purchaser to buy the cheaper, though more toxic, product.
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Link to a 6/14/05 National Public Radio report by Sarah Varney (in an audio
file) about the new San Francisco purchasing law described above (forwarded
by Maggie Clarke):
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4702396
Click on "Listen" and choose one of the audio players.
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Link to the website for the new Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance
paper reduction campaign:
http://www.reduce.org Click on "Office Paper" or
"Paper Reduction Campaign."
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Link to a 6/4/05 press release about the "zero waste commencement" at
College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine (forwarded by Marcia Rutan):
http://www.coa.edu/news/zerowasterelease.html
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Link to an article about the zero waste concept by Jordan Rosenfeld in the
6/8/05 "North Bay Bohemian" weekly newspaper, Santa Rosa, CA:
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/06.08.05/trash-0523.html
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Link to the website for the I Do Foundation, a public foundation based in
Washington, DC, that promotes charitable giving options for wedding gifts
and wedding favors:
http://www.idofoundation.org
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Note from Tom: I'll be out of the office June 22-28. Happy beginning of
summer!
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