Highlights 48% of 139 respondents were first timers and 50%
responded in 2012. This was the 5 th survey. The 2013 data was
amazingly consistent with earlier surveys and we published the 5
year results. Green Procurement has become accepted as a key
element of institutional sustainability and policy adoption
continues to grow. 65% of institutions recognize it as such vs. 53%
in 2009 47% have formally adopted a green procurement policy up
from 24% in 2009
Slide 4
Highlights (cont.) Green procurement exists within the broader
institutional sustainability plan including a climate action plan
50% of the time. This is the tipping point!! Data replaced emotion
as drivers of sustainability. AASHE, STARS and ACUPCC are
challenging the HE sector to move to data vs. PR. Green procurement
training is still terrible and hard to find. Difficult economic
conditions are not negatively affecting Green Procurement efforts.
61% of respondents reported either NO or NO change in their
programs (vs. 59% in 2010)
Slide 5
Goals of the survey Identify the current state of green
procurement trends within higher education Create a broader
baseline for annual replicable surveys to measure progress Measure
progress of adoption, toolsets and activities compared to the 2009,
through 2013 surveys
Slide 6
Demographics Institutionally the FTE demographic has shifted
over the five years but it is a very small: 2009 large 46% to 50%
in 2013. Likewise the five year trend for institutional
identification remains consistent. Public Institutions were 62% of
the 2009 respondents and 60% of 2013. In 2011 we created a
categorization for private-for profit institutions which has grown
from 3% to 8.6%.
Slide 7
General Policy Questions We are disappointed with the lack of
uptake for the Green Purchasing Policy Roadmap tool. The highest
rate of readership in five years was 35% twice but in the last two
years that number has fallen below 30%. The most difficult of the
three pillars of sustainability to weave into policy is social
justice by nearly 1.5:1 and improvement from 2009 when it was
2:1.
Slide 8
General Policy Questions AASHE membership has grown
significantly 33% in 2009 to 61.4% in 2013 as they have became the
dominant higher education sustainability leader. 48.6% of the AASHE
members are participating in the STARS program. ACUPCC
participation has grown from 42% in 2010 to 49.6% in 2013. This is
the tipping point for higher education and for procurement
professionals the beginning of an opportunity to demonstrate our
value add.
Slide 9
General Policy Questions We have been predicting that
sustainability plans are here to stay across the fives years the
increase in the percentage of institutions with a pan has increased
from 62% to 75.7% and the fact that the plans exist means that you
must do something with the plan. The evidence that action is being
taken show up in the data as a virtual doubling of the number of
institutions who had a climate action plan across the five years
from 24% to 47.9% in 2013.
Slide 10
General Policy Questions Sustainability on campus is an
extremely important activity which is being led by senior level
personnel. It is clear that over the five years that the Director
level in higher education is the dominant level of leadership and
the 2013 results with 50% of respondents confirm this. Of course
not all general policy issues have been a success the continued
abject failure of buy recycled products is disconcerting. More than
half of the respondents dont even have a policy in place to buy
back products made from all of those recyclemania contest and
another 15% have a policy but dont enforce it. The numbers are
almost unchanged in the five year span.
Slide 11
General Policies Summary The Future of Green Procurement is
Great! 15.7% of respondents indicated they will add a Green
Procurement policy in 2014 This is consistent with commitments
indentified since 2009 A high percentage of respondents have not
read the roadmap. This is a missed opportunity for NAEP that must
be addressed. Any policy that is not enforced (BUY RECYCLED) has a
root cause. Steps should be taken to determine the reasons why?
AASHE/STARS and ACUPCC are very important and when aligned with
green procurement policies, a sustainability and climate action
plan lead to higher education organizations who are strategically
positioned to will the battle of the recruitment and retention
wars.
Slide 12
General Policies Summary The most difficult thing to accomplish
in green procurement policy is to have a social justice component
and to have a viable working policy. We had a really poor response
rate in 2013. 139 responses which is close to being not
statistically valid. I would hope that it was a one year anomaly. I
know you can do great things, help your organization to do the
same.
Slide 13
Institutional Challenges & Priorities Institutional
sustainability drivers have solidified with five years of survey
data. The big five remain the big five but the hype of Do the right
thing is waning, while reducing the carbon footprint has gained
materially and taken over the number one spot. Reducing consumption
and improving the institutional image are coming on hard. Finally,
reducing costs holds onto the fifth spot.
Slide 14
Institutional Challenges & Priorities The economic
conditions where thought to have a negative impact on green
procurement in 2010 Four years of data do not support that
conclusion. Our two questions have consistently yielded a result
which is understood to mean that higher education green procurement
has largely been unchanged by those events. In fact the data always
includes some component of increases in green procurement activity.
Private schools are less affected than Public schools. Larger
schools are more affected than smaller schools.
Slide 15
Institutional Challenges & Priorities Top five challenges
remain the same Justifying cost for green purchasing Measuring
progress with green procurement Changing user behavior to focus on
sustainability Effectively promoting certified products and
suppliers to end users Validating supplier's green claims
Slide 16
Institutional Challenges & Priorities Issues for Green
Procurement programs in rank order Purchasing products that contain
ENERGY STAR certification Increasing total post-consumer recycled
content in purchased products Measurement of green procurement
compliance Ensuring that all paper products purchased contain
recycled content Reducing total shipments of delivered goods
Increasing spend with diversity suppliers Increasing spend with
local suppliers Increasing suppliers with eco-label (Green Seal,
GREENGUARD)
Slide 17
Institutional Challenges & Priorities The most dramatic
positive increases come in this question, Does your purchasing
system have the ability do any of the following? Promote green
service providers (such as paper or printer cartridge recycling) in
search results (75% / 30%) Clearly identify green suppliers in the
product search area (58% / 35%) Track total spend on green products
(49.3% / 14%) Track total spend on green certified suppliers (40.6%
/ 15%) Clearly promote green products in search results (46.4% /
18%) Filter search results to only show green products (46.4% /
10%) Outstanding progress in a five year period
Slide 18
Institutional Challenges & Priorities Summary Institutions
know what the challenges are and what to do about them generally.
The difficult economic conditions for Higher Education are showing
little effects on the sustainability movement, however existing
Green Procurement efforts have remained largely unchanged. 60.4%
reported NO change in their programs vs. 54% in 2010 The focal
point is changing on institutions for a variety of reasons: the
level of sustainability uptake on campus, the success of education
& outreach, and the expectations of students.
Slide 19
Procurement Processes Which green certifications are being
used? EnergyStar has led the way and has grown from 55% in 2009 to
80.7% in 2013. Green Seal ha(15.7%) and GRA (2.1%). Three of them
show great recognition and use and one not so much. No
certification are in use s held the second position and continues
to grow 25% in 2009 to 37.9% in 2013. Green Products continues in
the third position with a growth rate of 17% in 2009 to 25% in
2013. We added four new certifications in 2013; EPEAT (33.6%), FSC
(25%), EcoLogo at 41.7% of institutions.
Slide 20
Procurement Processes Where is green procurement focused in
commodities? We made some big additions to the selections in 2013
and the responses confirm that those were good choices. Leading
products; paper products (83.6%), office supplies and equipment
(72.9%), computers and office furnishings (36.4%) remain in the top
seven commodities. They were joined by newcomers; janitorial
supplies (60%), appliances (52.1%), and renewable energy (40.7%).
Other newcomers did well; examples are construction materials
(35.7%), RECs (40.7%) and local food (35%). We did observe a small
shift, when presented with both local food and organic food as a
choice, the organic response was cut in half.
Slide 21
Procurement Processes Where is green procurement focused in the
services sector? Our five year leaders recycling/waste handling
(77.1%) and Housekeeping/Cleaning (71.4%) remained numbers 1 and 2.
Newcomer new construction earned the third spot (60%). Landscaping
and Food Services were fourth and fifth (49.7% and 45%)
Slide 22
Procurement Processes What % of total procurement spending is
on green products and materials? Data indicates things are better.
Yet 61.4% cannot tell what the percentage of spend is it means we
have a long way to go. If you dont measure it you cant manage it
comes to mind. Obviously some institutions who are doing well
because 16.7% report more than 20% of total spend is on green
products and services. Additionally 13.6% report a spend greater
than 10% and some 8.6% fall between 0 and 10%. The marketplace is
being affected and that there is some shift occurring. Its just
that we dont have the systems to capture, record, and report the
spend.
Slide 23
Procurement Processes Returning to measurement, more than 43.6
or 50% of respondents still do not report internally or externally.
Internally this was an important year. The never report category
fell to 43.6% in 2013 from a high of 54%, and quarterly and annual
reporting increased. Unfortunately, that is not the case for
external reporting where 50% of the respondents still never report.
However, that is a downward trend moving down from 64% in 2009.
More institutions are under pressure to increase transparency and
the green spend is a part of that broader trend. It does not appear
that there is strong differentiation in whether respondents were
large or small, public or private.
Slide 24
Procurement Processes How would you rate the success of your
green procurement initiatives? We think we are getting better. The
five year trend is a gradual downgrading of almost 5%. There is and
increase of 4.1% in Ds and Fs. And an increase of 10% in As and Bs.
This is an encouraging trend only in perception, if only 35% have
formal assessment tools as indicated in Q24 we dont have any data
to support these perceptions beyond that of the respondents. This
cannot be totally discounted and needs further data to support and
reinforce the perceptions.
Slide 25
Procurement Processes 39.6% of responses indicated there was no
training available. One has to wonder how green procurement
initiatives are going to expand and excel if this deficiency
continues to exist. Further, 25.9% indicated what training they do
receive to be either poor or fair. On the other end of the spectrum
those identifying the training received as above average or
outstanding, 9.4% 2013 compared with 4% in 2010, tell another
story. It makes no difference whether you public or private and/or
big or small. Training is an issue. There is a clear void. If green
procurement is to thrive and its potential, help is needed from
outside the institutions to get there.
Slide 26
Procurement Processes How do members measure the success of
their green procurement efforts? 2013 respondents said that 65% of
them had no formal measurement system. The results are quite dismal
frankly. However, that is an improvement over the starting point of
77% five years ago. But we wonder how long this can go on without
any data to support the efforts by the department? 20% do measure
using percentage of spend on products and that number is only an
increase of 5% from the 2009. 15% use a cost savings methodology
and 8.6% use percentage of unit volume method.
Slide 27
Procurement Processes 53% of respondents have a green
procurement champion available to them, and 41% of respondents felt
that the green procurement champion was effective. Champions work!
If you dont have one, get one, if that fails become one!!
Slide 28
Procurement Processes New Questions Has the higher education
sector embraced the USGBC's LEED for new construction (NC) through
campus policy? Yes (61.9%) and we suspect that the number may be
larger in following years based upon the 20.9% who did not know.
Has the higher education sector employed the USGBC's LEED for
existing buildings (EB) process to certify existing buildings? Yes
(47.1%) with a dont know response of 29%. Is your campus involved
in a fossil fuel divestment campaign with its endowment holdings?
The yes response rate was 9.3%, while the no rate was 70.5%.
Periodically there are hot topics and we felt this was one worth
testing the waters on.
Slide 29
Procurement Processes Summary No major shifts in focus for the
buying of green products or services (new items help sharpen
focus), but certifications are continuing their growth in
importance for defining green and for measuring progress. Nearly
1/3 of respondents do not know critical information about their
institutions strategic sustainability activities Green Procurement
Training is a major issue and has not improved. No training is
available for 39.6% of the respondents (vs. 33% in 2010) 25.9% of
the respondents self evaluate their training as POOR or FAIR (vs.
34% in 2010) Purchasing professionals reported a massive shift in
the ability of software systems to assist them and the users in
advocating, tracking, and verifying green products and services
claims. This is the best news we could have hoped for. Green
Procurement Champions are Effective!
Slide 30
Overall Conclusions The lack of measurement throughout the
process is a weakness that cannot be ignored. Green procurement
does not deserve to be sabotaged by a lack of transparency and
systems weaknesses. People are our most valuable resource we must
invest in their ongoing professional development to succeed. 2013
was another year of belt tightening, but the Sustainability
movement is trying to entrench itself in the fabric of our
institutions.
Slide 31
Overall Conclusions Again more schools reported to have a Green
Procurement Policy than in the years before. AASHE is growing in
its leadership and guidance. STARS is gaining widespread
acceptance. Likely the biggest move forward this year is that
technology infrastructure continues to be put in place to support
the movement. We still have a long way to go in our ability to
measure and report, our available training and our actual results.
2013 was our lowest level of response (139), but we look forward to
2014.
Slide 32
Thank You & Please give us your 2014 response THANK YOU
PARTICIPANTS OF THE 2013 NAEP GREEN PROCUREMENTSURVEY NAEP Director
of Sustainable Leadership [email protected]