Presentation of my analysis and recommendations for the work I did as the Sustainable Procurement Analyst at the George Washington University Office of Sustainability. The objective of the project was to find ways to increase the sustainability of paper procurement at the university. Based on my analysis, I was able to pioneer a strategy that will increase the amount of recycled content paper in use without increasing costs. In addition, I created an Excel-based dashboard that acts as a balanced scorecard and allows users to compare alternate products on a triple bottom line basis.
4. Project Scope
Build on research conducted by prior
year interns
• Understanding of internal operations/sustainable
procurement.
• Discussion with external parties (sustainable
procurement at other educational institutions).
Discuss paper procurement issues with
external experts.
• World Resources Institute, World Wildlife Fund, General
Services Administration, Environment Protection
Agency, Xerox, Staples
Discussions with internal parties to vet
approach and get stakeholder buy-in.
• Procurement staff, Marketing & Creative Services, Law
School.
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5. Project Scope (continued)
Conduct analysis of GW paper
procurement and develop a strategy to
improve sustainability of procurement.
• Determine business case for changing
procurement.
• Build balanced scorecard. Purpose: deliver a tool to
institutional buyers and office administrators that
provides them with information on additional, non-
cost aspects of paper to enable them to determine
the best options based on sustainable
attributes, quality and price.
• Recommendations
Develop rollout strategy to
implement recommendations
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7. Paper Policies at Competing Institutions
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8. Why not GW?
• Challenges
– University culture (aversion to change/perceived mandates).
• Policy vs. Guidance (a “desired practice”).
– Historical objections to recycled content paper.
• Quality perceptions – dust and jamming issues
• Cost – on current contract, recycled paper costs more, but alternate
contracts are available.
– General lack of education around non-cost paper characteristics.
• How to Address
– Provide tools and education to encourage desired buying
behavior.
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14. Analysis: Approach
• The scope of the analysis entailed conducting an
evaluation of current paper usage.
– The top 10 products (by sales) across the entire university
account for over 90% of copy paper category spend.
• Upon understanding the current state of paper
procurement, analysis proceeded to an examination of
alternate usage patterns and other contract vehicles.
– Consider financial impact of retaining current usage pattern
under more favorable contract terms.
– Apply recommended shift in paper usage, coupled with more
favorable contract terms to offset increased cost of recycled
content paper.
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15. Analysis: Recommendations
Implement a sustainable paper procurement strategy
• Target a minimum of 30% recycled content paper (elimination of
1 most 0% recycled content) by FY 2014.
• Encourage this shift via education of paper purchasers around
the university using tools to demonstrate the non-financial
considerations/impacts of paper purchases, as well as targeted
outreach efforts.
• Periodically revisit target to move towards ever more
sustainable paper procurement.
Apply lessons learned to implement sustainable
2 procurement in other product categories (i.e., other
paper products, electronics, water, etc.)
• Upon determining efficacy of balanced scorecard among
user community, create similar tools to inform purchasing
decisions of other products.
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17. Increase amount of recycled paper used at GW
without incurring additional financial costs.
Realize financial savings over current spend, ~ $XXX.
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18. GW has an opportunity to increase its purchase
of recycled content paper
Currently, X% of paper purchases are 0% recycled content.
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19. Recommended increase in sustainable paper
purchases
Replace 0% recycled content paper purchases with 30% recycled content.
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20. Additional cost of recycled paper can be offset by
switching to another contract vehicle
Top 3 paper products account for X% of paper purchased at GW.
$XXX (current contract) vs. $XXX (alternate contract).
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22. Benefits of Implementation
• Strategic Benefits/Opportunities
– Cost savings (coupled with paperless initiative).
– Contribution to sustainability strategy (carbon neutrality and
water goals).
• Potential to save 80K pounds of CO2 and 363K gallons of water
– Drives consistent processes and decision making.
– Marketing aspects
• Improved rankings
• Appeal to prospective students.
• Potential to improve scoring on research grant applications.
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24. Possible implementation options
• Pilot program that utilizes monitoring and
reward/recognition to further education of purchasers on
this topic
• Tool availability on Office of Sustainability website
– Immediately downloadable, exploring making it web-based
• Integration with iBuy Training
• Partner with Staples to make iBuy experience of paper
purchase more conducive to consideration of
sustainability factors.
• Office of Sustainability outreach via Green Office
Program and social media
• Student Engagement
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25. Questions?
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Hinweis der Redaktion
Visual display – scale of 1 – 6, (green = 5 & 6, etc.)Categories & subcategories
Actual Values driving graphics, and explanation page of tool
Allows comparison of paper products by providing a graphical and textual representation of impacts of alternate choices
