Government.
Has eco labels that don't match another nation or state or government, then that vendor will be have a hard time moving between public procurement markets.
So the the the use of ecolabels, while very common, now increasingly common, it can raise international trade issues. And we talked about those in the second session. We also talked about them briefly in an earlier webinar that we had on on the joint EU us.
Compilation of sustainable procurement strategies.
And that information is also available on the program page.
So just here, I want to see if we could.
Take a quick, Poll!
On green procurement strategies. The folks who are in the audience could.
To could.
Respond to this question about what is the most common strategy in your jurisdictions in your jurisdictions? Obviously, if you're in Alaska, you're also in the United States. But if you're a lawyer from Alaska, for example, your your jurisdiction would be Alaska as opposed to United States, if you could just respond as to what's the most.
Common strategy that you see in your jurisdiction among the 5 that we've identified internationally as in in these patterns.
And it looks like what we're seeing is that eagle but technical valuation. This is very interesting. The idea that green procurement issues we brought into, for example, is one product or service more green than another. That would be part of the technical evaluation. We're seeing that very strong response. There.
Once and thank you very much. I'm gonna I'm gonna close out the poll here, and it looks like, in fact, valuation came on front and planning came out in front as well. That's very, very useful and interesting in in countries. Brazil and the United States.
Planning processes now are incorporating consideration. So it's very interesting to see.
How strong a response.
We got on that.
Interesting, too, is is relatively few. Responses had to do with.
Contract or qualifications. We discussed.
Well, contractification makes sense. It's nudging the contractor community.
Towards.
For instance, chroniclinghouse gas emissions, is nudging the marketplace in that direction. The downside of it is that you can end up disrupting a supply chain. By disqualifying contractors based on their.
They're they're.
Participation.
In in green procurement. I'm gonna go ahead and share the results.
And then I'm going to go ahead and.
Move on to the next slide.
So there is a framework that we're gonna be talking about today. We have those which and we've drawn here from the the Nasbo state and local government, but kind of The Practical Guide and the Practical Guide. Julia Wolff, was actually and heavily involved in in drawing and working on the chapter 15.
The Chapter 15 from the Nasbo Guide is available on the program. Page. Nasbo very kindly has allowed us to post.
Chapter 15 there, and at the beginning of that chapter there is a recognition that there are 4 basic elements.
To a successful green procurement strategy, sustainable procurement, strategy. You have to legal mandate. You have to stakeholder coordination. You have a statement of authority of policy, coverage roles and waivers.
And then there has to be a process for reporting on success, strategy for making green public procurement succeed, and we'll be coming back to this. I wanted to share it with you now, because it gives you a way to think about the presentations you're about to hear. Drawing on experience, both at the State and local level across the United States.
So I'm gonna go through introductions. Emily torn sarra Tool is going to be talking from Maryland's experience. What it is that she does in Maryland.
To to encourage.
Our green publicment carry Waters is going to be talking about her experience from Portland. It's a city level experience, but a very sophisticated green procurement system. There.
And Julia Wolfe is going to be talking about her work. The director of environmental purchasing in Massachusetts.
How it's worked in Massachusetts, and I think each of these is very unique, very interesting. Walk through this as part of our preparations. Each of these is a very unique perspective, with a lot of lessons to be learned.
Around the country.
So Emily is the chief of sustainability at the Maryland Department of General Services, where she leads a statewide green procurement program. She services the chair of the Maryland Green Purchasing Committee and Interagency Committee to advance sustainable procurement in Maryland State Government. She also leads the State Centralized Electric Vehicle infrastructure program which supports Maryland's transition to a 0 emission fleet.
She's a certified project manual by the Project Management Institute and Certified Climate Change professional by the Association of Climate Change Officers.
She's a 2023 graduate of a leadership Baltimore county.
Kerry Waters is a sustainable procurement manager program.
Procurement manager for the city of Portland had to move my my camera here.
She previously served as a contract supervisor on Contract Equity Coordinator at the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
For that. She's a founding member and communication specialist with a Portland Clean energy initiative. She also worked for several years with a native American Youth and Family Center in Portland.
She has a dual bachelor degree in environmental sciences and public policy from evergreen State College, and a master in urban and regional planning degree with specialization on environmental planning from Portland State University.
Our 3rd guest is Julia Wolff. She serves as the director of environmental Purchasing and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Environmental Analyst and Planner, with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
She also served as an environmental planner, waste reduction coordinator in the Us. EPA. She has a Master's degree in geography, resource management from San Francisco, State.
And A. BA. In French, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
So with that, I'm gonna go ahead and turn it over to Emily and thank you to all of our panelists for joining us. Emily.
Thank you, Chris. I'm so happy to be here, and with such great
Co-panelists as well. I'm Emily Suedool, as Chris mentioned. You can just launch into the next slide, and I'm very happy to be talking about
Our program in the State of Maryland.
So our program was actually set up by legislation. In 10 the Green Maryland Act was passed, and that actually set up this interagency. Green Purchasing committee.
The committee. It has a number of mandated statutory members, including budget.
Department of Education Environment Health. It.
Even includes our University system of Maryland, which is.
12. Public institutions.
And the committee is both chaired and staffed by general services. So we chair the committee, but we also provide
At at this point 2 full time staff person.
In addition to myself, to to do the work of that.
Of the program, which is a statewide program to do a number of things. Importantly.
Promote environmentally preferable procurement, which is a mouthful. So we tend to just say green purchasing.
To make sure that training and resources are available to state agencies.
We develop best practices.
Guidelines policies to ensure that green purchasing becomes the default action in Maryland State government.
We coordinate. This is important. I know the Nasbo guide talks about this as well with all of the other different entities and initiatives across State government. Working on parallel.
Initiative. So.
For example, in Maryland we have a really ambitious climate goal. For 60 greenhouse gas reduction by 2031 and net 0 greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. We do have a commission on climate change. We also have similar commissions on clean transportation. So making sure that we're in alignment from the procurement side.
Also very important to our program is that we publish.
Environmentally preferable specifications. Those become actually, we publish them online to our website, and they become resources for state agencies to use in their solicitations.
And contracts, and then we also are required to report annually to the Governor and the Legislature on our green purchasing activities.
And I'll go a little bit deeper into a couple of those.
So our program in Maryland is bolstered by statutory and regulatory requirements. So that has helped our program, which is now quite mature program. Be successful and ensuring that green purchasing has followed across State agencies.
We? There are a number of.
Laws in effect, related to environment or related to procurement. And our work is really at the intersection of those 2. So we follow very closely.
Legislative session every year to see what is going through, and how it will affect what we are able to procure in Maryland.
And that can be as.
Specific as a prohibition on buying something with a particular chemical.
Or it can be broader and require commodity specific requirement for an eco label, for example, for it products to have a certain eco label but then there are these very general requirements that are very important to the success of the program.
Which include that Maryland agencies are just generally required to procure environmentally preferable.
Products and services, so that is laid out in Maryland with a few caveats, including, if they do not perform adequately, if it would exclude adequate competition or not available at a reasonable price and a reasonable period of time. Obviously, that's there's a little bit of nuance to navigate there, and the reimpurchasing committee.
Helps agencies. Kind of understand what.
Actually exists in the market and and whether any of these caveats.
Are, actually.
Necessary to be met, so.
The other broad one and I sort of touched on is the fact that we, we publish these specifications.
And that once the committee publishes agencies, must then use them in their procurements.
Yeah.
So so, Emily, can I ask a question, and I would do one quick observation. So in in many systems, for instance, in the Federal system. And and you see this on the model procurement code as well.
You're really trying to set up offices that serve as brains for the procurement system. But these offices.
Don't have any operational.
They're just the brains they're providing policy and guidance for the other offices.
Is your office kind of like the brains of green procurement and.
In Maryland, or do you have an operational role as well.
So, I suppose, where the brains and in that we are the subject matter expert. They're the only folks that have dedicated staffing to do this specifically. However, it is very much like collaborative process, and requires all of those agencies. I think, having.
And Interagency Committee, where all of these the agencies are, are members of that committee, and have the requirement as a statutory member of that committee sort of shares help share that responsibility? And then, in terms of just rolling out operationally, how is it all implemented? We obviously cannot be everywhere all at once, and we.
Cannot do all of the compliance for the State. So we have approached that through
Through a very robust training program.
Which I can talk about next. I think it's the next slide.
Just wanted to make a quick observation for the audience on if I could just go on on terms of the legal mandate you have here. So what we're seeing here, Emily, in Maryland is a very, very clear legal mandate. The Federal rules that we're seeing emerge on green procurement are largely grounded in executive order, and that leaves them very politically and legally vulnerable.
Politically vulnerable because of President trump, were to be reelected.
Then he would just take we. He just eliminated orders. So the foundations for those regulations would disappear.
Even if Vice President Harris is elected.
The fact that you're grounding that the that the mandate.
Is one, an executive order, as opposed to a mandate in statute, which is what you have in Maryland.
Is very, very tricky under the Supreme Court sensation will provide, and we had a webinar on this a couple of weeks ago, under the Supreme Court's decision.
And the decisions that are merged during the pandemic with the mandate, that all contractor employees be vaccinated.
Some circuits, said an executive order isn't basis enough. You need to have actually basis.
For a regulation addresses a major question like environmental sustainability.
So at the Federal level, we still need to get our house in order. We need a statutory basis for what you've already doing in Maryland.
Thank you. Yeah, that's great perspective, too. Sometimes I look at that statute and wonder it. Could it be stronger.
Could we? Could we, provide fewer ways to to wriggle out of the requirement? But, we are very fortunate to have that as a as a
Foundation for a program.
In Maryland, in terms of making sure that Maryland
The the folks who do the work of procurement in Maryland are adequately prepared to do green purchasing. We have been working for the past couple of years on making sure that we have a green purchasing literate.
Workforce.
Of procurement, professionals.
And so we started. Actually, when the the state
Establish a Maryland Procurement Academy in 2019. That is.
That is a program that all State procurement officers.
Must go through in order to be a working procurement professional in Maryland. Just generally. This is an aside, and I won't go into it, but does have a lot of procurement.
Layers. There's a lot of laws and regulations. It's a little bit.
Less simple and straightforward. I've been told that other States and so there's really a lot for these folks to wrap their heads around to conduct.
Procurement legally and fairly in Maryland. And so there is this Academy that they work through. They become certified. Maryland procurement officers, and since day one we made sure that green purchasing a green purchasing 1 0, 1 is in that mandatory training, so that every.
Procurement officer in Maryland will have that. It's about 2 and a half hours. Live training.
That we give as well as learning checks and they have to pass a quiz at the end to make sure that they understand.
1st of all, the basic requirement of green purchasing. But then also, how does it actually work in practice?
And then, a little later, a few years ago, we launched.
An actual, a voluntary certification that folks can go on to do a deep dive in purchasing we started to to think. Here, Chris, your question was.
Well how? You know you can put out this stuff. But then how does it actually go into operation and get implemented? And our thought was so. What if we had green purchasing ambassadors at every State agency? What if it wasn't just 2 of us at Dgs to ensure that this is happening across the State. And so we set up this this program with the goals of.
Educating procurement officers, and providing that deeper understanding of green purchasing
Institutionalizing green, purchasing as a knowledge base among staff.
And then empowering folks to be that.
That subject matter, expert at their agency, enabling them to conduct environmentally preferable procurements on their own.
So that is a certification program. It's.
About 10 h of live training.
And we go through everything from Ecolabels.
To how to actually green solicitations and contract step by step, both when we have a specification that the Green Purchasing Committee publishes, and when there is not a specification specifically to follow
How to ensure compliance and and then also just basic climate and sustainability. Terminology that we found is very important for procurement officers and and.
That they may come into this just not having that foundational knowledge so to help them.
Get there!
Next slide, please.
And so also really important to our program is the fact that we're required to report annually. This is, I'm gonna be honest, it's a heavy lift. It is not a simple process to gather all of the data for what the State procures. We don't procure everything and so we have agencies all across the State, and
You know.
Numerous vendors, about 6 billion dollars of annual spend. We certainly can't look at all of it. So we're very strategic in terms of what we're able to look at.
And gather to quantify that together into.
A report.
And so we are able to look at Key State contracts, and also we. There is a.
Requirement that agencies report to us as well on their purchasing activities. So we take all of that. We get data from vendors.
And we are able to see actually, what is the impact of what we're doing.
And so on. The right. Here's our fiscal year 2023 impact report. It looks simple, but it actually takes a great deal of work to get to this point, but we find it really valuable to be able to say, as a result of all of this, all of this work.
That all of the procurement officers are doing across the State.
What does that actually mean for the citizens of Maryland? So we do quantify using the data we gather as well as some environmental calculators.
To translate impacts.
In terms of what what that means in real life. So, for example, as a result of green purchasing, we were able to document savings cost savings of 5, 1 million dollars. We were able to avoid greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of taking 31,000 Us. Passenger vehicles off of the road for a year.
And on and on, in terms of electricity, conserving material and water, avoiding waste.
And reducing
Pollution.
So we're proud of this. It's certainly a work in progress. We try to improve it every year, but it does take quite a bit of work to be able to get to that point of of reporting out on impacts, and I will be happy to share both report, and which includes a reporting methodology at the end as well as some other resources on our website in the chat.
And that's all I have.
Which one.
Yes.
Thanks so much, Emily, so we you have. There's a couple of questions for you in the QA. If you if you see on the button on the top. Those are questions for you specifically. Can I ask you a quick question early? So so Marilyn is a heavily democratic state, it's a blue State in the in the American vernacular, but until recently the Governor was Republican. Larry Ogan is now running for Senate.
And he's a pro business Republican. So it's while it's blue State. There are definitely a strong Republican presence.
In a in a strong pro business presence in that.
In that in that side of the house.
Do you find that the reporting.
Helps reinforce.
Political support for green procurement.
Absolutely.
And I've worked through 3 administration. So I started under a Democratic Governor. And then we had a Republican, actually a a quite popular Republican Governor. For 8 years.
And it was very unclear in the beginning. Of course, those of us who were not used to being in a Republican administration what that would look like. And there certainly is some messaging around.
Cost savings, business opportunities.
That we explored at that time.
During that time also, was a pandemic, and that really shifted. How we approached everything, because at that point it was like.
What is important to us.
W. You know, we're we're in this emergency situation here, and you know, there's a lot of emergency procurements and things like green purchasing are kind of.
Falling off is just not critical right now. This might be like something that folks are interested or passionate about. But does that fit into what we need to do as a state right now. And that's when we really got down to work on developing the impact report. And that's what we we launched for the 1st time those benefit calculations and and took very seriously, being able to show that there were cost savings.
Associated with green purchasing. We did a webinar on on saving money through green purchasing, and the ways that look so either upfront over, total, you know.
Life cycle cost savings per use, just avoiding additional procurement kind of thing because things last longer, and went through numerous examples of that to kind of show.
That green purchasing is not.
This expensive, you know difficult thing, but that it's actually something that can provide opportunities, small businesses to get into the game.
etc. So yes, I think the messaging can certainly be different. I think the impact report and showing cost savings is always going to be.
Helpful, but there are so many costs associated that we.
Also cannot quantify easily. Right.
So
What we can show, I think is really important to do so.
Thanks a lot, Emily. This returns us to the externality questions we discussed in the 1st session the starting point for all this is externalities, global warming. And it's difficult to bring that into a political discussion within a particular jurisdiction. But, as you point out, they're so important.
That I'll turn it over to Carrie.
Thank you.
Great. Thank you so much. So my name is Carrie Waters. I usually her pronouns, and I serve as sustainable procurement program manager with the city of Portland, Oregon.
So to start, I want to share briefly about my history before coming on board in my current role.
So we'll ship to the next slide.
Around the just transition strategic framework as a backdrop for this conversation. I'm not sure if I can advance the slides.
No, and I but.
Just a sec.
No worries, thank you.
There we go. I'm so sorry, technically incompetent.
No worries. Thank you so much.
So.
You know.
As was mentioned briefly in my intro before I joined the city of Portland most recently, in 2,018, I spent several years.
With the native American Youth and Family Center. I myself am a member of the Clinket tribe, which is from southeast Alaska, but I grew up in the Portland urban Indian community.
And I had the opportunity to ground my analysis in the just transition strategic framework alongside some of my colleagues from the coalition of communities of color and several member organizations. And through this series we built our understanding around the fact that.
Ego means home. So ecology means knowledge of home and economy means management of home.
And so we need a holistic extractive economy to a regenerative one.
And this isn't just about how we manage our environmental resources.
But also how we treat one another, how we articulate our purpose, worldview and structure of our desired future.
So our climate justice collaborative that those living on the front lines of climate change, impacted 1st and worst should be the ones driving the solutions for climate, resilience.
Through strategies focused on adaptation to our new normal mitigation of the existing impacts and to build social.
And this led to the development of the Portland Clean Energy Fund tax on billionaire retail corporations.
That make over a billion dollars nationally and over 500,000 locally within the city of Portland, on an annual basis.
And this now provides over 50 million dollars annually.
For Grant making to community-based organizations to build the capacity of those frontline communities to participate in our emerging green economy.
So one week after election day in November 2018, I came on board as Contract Equity Coordinator with the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
And then I worked as contract supervisor from 2021 onward until I came on board in this role as sustainable procurement program manager for the entire city of Portland just over a year ago.
But during my time with the Bureau of Transportation I became familiar with our sustainable procurement requirements.
And the tensions faced as project managers want to get their projects through quickly and cost effectively. And as I encourage them to take that life cycle cost perspective, and to ensure that our spend is not focused on immediate value alone.
But to ensure that it's in alignment with our values.
Next slide, please.
So I'll spend a little bit of time about our sustainable procurement policy. Because what we spend our public dollars on and who we spend that money with is an extension of what the city values, the kind of world that we want to support for our community and for future generations.
So our strategic program supports and advances a best value approach to public procuremental stewardship.
Equity, labor and human rights.
Human health and fiscal responsibility through holistic life cycle costing.
We recognize that some of our largest impacts occur within the supply chain.
And our sustainable procurement policy can be found via the link on this slide.
And it is also accompanied by our green building policy, our goods and services code and our standard construction.
And within our sustainable procurement policy, which I'll focus on here, we acknowledge that our products and services that we purchase have inherent impacts for better or for worse.
These are environmental, economic, social and health impacts.
And they happen throughout the lifecycle and Associated supply chains.
So our sustainable procurement policy calls for all city employees to.
Our procurements and purchasing to reduce those adverse impacts and to influence positive change.
Especially within our resource, constrained environment. It can be very easy to view sustainability as an afterthought, or is it nice to have rather than need to have element of our purchasing.
So rather than considering the upfront cost efficiencies. 1st and foremost, we're called to account for this comprehensive suite of costs and impacts.
And all city staff engaged in procurement processes are called to utilize.
Our guiding principles, which are as follows.
Everything is connected. We need to conserve. We need to think in 3D.
Taking into account the ethical, environmental, and social impacts of our purchases.
Take that life cycle cost perspective.
Provide fair opportunities.
Ensure health and safety.
Uphold accountability.
Support innovation.
Provide full integration and to lead the way.
And there are 4 sustainable procurement practice, including reduction of greenhouse gases.
Prevention or otherwise reduction of exposure to substance is a very high concern.
To foster and integrate supplier diversity.
And to support safe and fairly practices and ethical behavior throughout the supply chain.
So all city staff are encouraged to follow these best practices related to those priority areas. There's an extensive array of best practices outlined in the policy. So for time's sake, I'll just direct folks to check those out on your own time.
Next slide, please.
And Kerry, can I just throw something in here? Is that okay?
Please, do.
So so a lot of our audience members are from Europe, and they're gonna be looking at what your presentation you're gonna say they're gonna say, Holy cow! What Portland's doing is exactly what we're used to doing in Europe, where we deal with sustainability as tripartite is issues not only of environmental sustainability, but also economic sustainability and issues of social justice and.
And Carrie's described something where she's doing all 3. And yet when we hear from the folks, and just as a sort of
Social realities. They hear from Washington first, st just because it's it's it's like the highest radio tower, whatever it is. So they'll say, well, when we talk to Washington about national politics and national policies.
It's all about only environmental sustainability. Why is it that Carrie's talking about all 3 at the Federal level when they talk about sustainability? It's only environmental sustainability. And just for audiences. So they understand.
That was a political decision that was really made during the Obama Administration. The Obama Administration decided to to push to one side issues of social justice, issues of economic sustainability which are addressed in the Federal procurement regime, but not under the umbrella sustainability. This is economic sustainability is dealt with through domestic preferences, but they're dealt with differently.
Because the environmental sustainability initiative in the Obama Administration foresaw that they might be replaced by a Conservative Republican. They didn't want the social justice initiatives and the economic and sustainability initiatives to be touched by a an attack which is what happened in the trump administration and attack on environmental sustainability.
And that's why you, in the Federal level, you only hear environmental sustainability deal with an isolation where, as you're describing very eloquently, Carrie at Portland. You're dealing with all 3 at the same time.
Thank you so much for providing that context.
We'll shift to the next slide.
Please.
So our sustainable procurement program at the city of Portland has been in operation for just over 2 decades in some form or another, starting 1st with the basics of you know, using recycled products in our office supplies and paper, for example.
But in 2,016 we commissioned a sustainable supply analysis.
Which provided us with insights about where our actions would have the greatest impact.
And this revealed that our supply chain related. Greenhouse gas emissions are 4 times greater than our operation, based greenhouse gas emissions.
And the study analyzed the environmental performance of our supply chain through an impact. Spend analysis for fiscal year 2,014 through 15.
This encompassed over 160,000 lines of spend data covering over 8,000 suppliers and 385 million dollars of spend.
So while this data is just about a decade old, it's unlikely that these key takeaways have changed much today.
And these findings inform the direction of the program in subsequent years, which told us that we should primarily focus on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in terms of our environmental impacts.
Which accounted for 73% of our total environmental impact. And secondly, the toxic releases.
Came in at 23, which combined A comprised a combined 96% of our weighted environmental impact.
And, furthermore, these impacts mainly stem from purchases in construction, miscellaneous services like utilities and automotive vehicles and equipment.
Next slide, please.
Okay, can you ask quick question. So what you're saying is the annual reporting that Emily talked about. And and NASA talked about the annual reporting that you're doing actually causes you to make management decisions and to redirect your redirect. Your efforts.
Exactly. And you know this. This happened nearly 10 years ago, and the reporting now is based on best available data and is a bit more piecemeal than what we see here. But we know that these truths still stand today and have informed the strategic direction of our program, sits.
So how we do it? As I mentioned. As a result of that analysis, we revamped the program, or I should say my predecessor revamped the program to be more strategic and impactful.
And develop this suite of employee on demand resources and tools like cut and paste specifications, evaluation, training, modules.
And topic. Specific guides.
So this also included an in-depth resource page and database on eco labels, Ecolabel types.
Including type one which provides that seal of approval for meeting multiple attributes set of predetermined requirements for standard.
Type 2. For verifiable single attribute. Environmental claims.
And type 3, that is, environmental product declarations that display that comprehensive and detailed environmental product information.
Very much like a nutrition label nutrition fact label for an environmental standard.
So program staff and manage high impact high value initiatives to address key procurement, related environmental and social impacts.
One example includes our highly successful low carbon concrete pilot initiative.
Which includes those type 3, Eco labels, Aka, the environmental product declarations.
On all of our concrete mixes within construction projects that meet that certain threshold.
Another example is our regional.
Cleaner construction collaborative of public agencies that the city of Portland convenes.
To ensure that our default particulate matter. Emissions are reduced on our construction projects.
From our equipment, subject to our standard through a review of all of the equipment, to ensure that they're in compliance.
And an issuance of decals.
We also have a consulting contract with a nonprofit organization to support connecting our bureaus to responsibly.
And outside of the construction side. We've got lots of other highlights, but for the sake of time I'll just briefly mention that we have a code of conduct for our apparel manufacturers to ensure sweat, free labor.
And finally, our labor piece agreement to ensure that contractors providing a certain set of services, do not union bust, if their employees want to organize.
Finally, we provide ad hoc support via review of our requisitions as they come through for procurement processes.
And I encourage our staff to reach out to me as early as possible, both our our buyers at the bureau level and centralized within central procurement services, and our project managers.
To consult with me about what sustainable procurement looks like within their specific projects.
So.
And that wraps it up for me.
Is, is a couple questions on this? So in the World Bank revised their procurement approach in 2016 to focus on risk. So they streamlined it.
To make it more strategic. Use the same word that you used.
Is it fair to say this that you've revised.
The program. Portland's revised, the program.
To focus more on the on the higher risk areas. The higher impact areas.
Exactly. We wanted to understand where we would get that best.
Paying for our buck, and of course, you know, Eco labels can be so helpful in.
Predetermining those standards because we we currently only have a staff of 2. So we have to be strategic about where we're directing our time and resources.
And to lean on those standards to the greatest extent possible.
But to figure out, you know, where that highest risk lies which we found to be within our construction sector.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
So, Julia, I'll hand it over to you.
Thank you. Very nice. Thank you very much, and thanks for having me on so I just wanted to say that I've been working with Osd. For the last 12 years or so.
And when I took this job I knew nothing about procurement.
And I always tell everybody that.
I was so surprised by how incredibly complicated.
And then I realized that.
We have a lot of power especially as public purchasers, to use the.
Procurement, Process.
To signal change on environmental and climateful products and services.
And, of course, with the goal of ultimately changing, sometimes a little slowly, the marketplace so.
I'm gonna go over in my presentation a little bit.
About the ebb program.
Talk about the regulations, policies.
Executive Orders.
How we integrate things into our.
Ppp into our program, and I'm gonna talk a little bit about 3rd party certifications and eco labels, and then, lastly, dive into Eppp reporting, which is a big part of what we do.
So just a bit about Osd.
Our agency. We set up master agreements for goods and services that public entities, so we don't buy anything.
Except for what we need in our own agency and offices.
And we also don't do construction of another State agency.
Executive agencies in the Commonwealth. They're required to use statewide contracts.
And so that's our confirmed buying power.
So the other eligible entities listed on this slide.
They're not required to state contracts, but.
Many do because we've done all the bidding work. We've developed the specs.
Including the environmentally preferable ones. We manage the contract.
So they don't have to do it. So really.
So the Epp program we actually started in 1,009.
We have a fairly mature program. And just last year.
1st time we're able to hire 3 additional staff.
One to help me and the other 2 to help build our climate.
Program in our procurement program.
So we just became the climate.
And sustainability unit.
Us, to.
Foray into this.
Next slide, please.
So I just wanted to show you some of the existing regulations. Executive orders.
That help us guide environmental and climate work.
They're all really important, but actually just gonna focus in on executive order 5, 15.
And the Epp program administers this executive order out of Osd.
So this executive order, it actually provides us the ability to set minimum environmental standards.
For products and services.
We also co-chair the toxic reduction task force, who helps us.
Identify less toxic products.
For our contracts.
And then the Executive order also requires us to complete an annual progress report.
It goes to the governor. So we work really closely.
With many of our sister agencies and departments. And we're trying to figure out what they need. You know, what products and services do you need.
Make sure that you're complying with executive order 5, 15.
So Massachusetts was one of the 1st States that added a climate position in our Governor's cabinet. So Governor Maura.
Appointed Melissa Hofer to this position.
And climate. Hofer has been working closely with Osds procurement program and climate, and she wrote on the slide.
In her recommendations to the Commonwealth, that.
I, signaling greater attention to a mission reduction in procurement.
We can drive more climate, responsible decision making.
Throughout the economy.
So.
Along with the new climate staff at Osp.
We're really trying to figure out how to collect award climate reporting from our vendors.
We're also thinking a lot about the social cost of carbon.
And how do we integrate that in.
And eventually we want to create an environmental scorecard for our vendors.
That will be taken into consideration.
Next slide. So I'm gonna kind of walk through now.
Our strategic sourcing process. And just so, you know, really, my goal is to put myself out of a job right? I want all of our sourcing developers, sourcing managers to be doing all this work.
So this slide goes through the process. What we've been trying to do is integrate stuff.
Into the process, and I'm just gonna break it down for you.
So a few years back we started requiring those bidder folks.
The 1st thing that they do in a bid process.
To actually meet with the Epp program.
And we identify Ep and climate opportunities.
And we map out what's needed for the procurement.
So the bidder they and document this in something called Anpp process and project plan.
And this has to be signed by me or the Ep unit.
And they put that document as a record in the procurement file.
So. We then work with our bidders to integrate.
Appropriate environmental and climate specification language into the bids themselves and.
For those of you that work in procurement. This is one of the most important parts.
Getting those specifications in. So.
Our sourcing teams. They're actually comprised of some of the larger.
Public users of the contract and subject matter. Experts.
And they're ultimately the decision maker on what specification will be accepted. So it's different than how Maryland has it set up.
So I often describe kind of my role or our role as.
Consultants to the team.
So we conduct market research. We identify a 3rd party.
We draft mandatory and or desirable.
And we present them to the sourcing team.
And each contract is very different.
Depending on what the product or service.
One of our contracts for environmentally preferable products.
Has like 12 to 15 pages a week.
Agents.
Others may not have any. So it's really contract specific.
And in Massachusetts we actually have another form that's included with all of our bids of the Osds.
It's called the environmental practices form. And the purpose of this form.
Is to provide evaluation points to bidders who can.
Who they foster, and can substantiate a sustainable approach to conducting their own operations.
And this form could actually determine whether vendor gets an award or not, especially in a really competitive.
So we, we assist the bidders evaluating this form and evaluating other Ep.
Requirements.
But one of the biggest issues. I just wanna point out I've been talking about this so much.
Is in the area of.
It. It's for procurement programs. It's not easy to find.
And then purchase environmental and climate products and services.
From contracts.
So this is a really big focus area for us to make this.
Process, much easier.
So we've been working closely with our development team to identify Epps and catalogs.
We've been exploring opportunities in our E procurement system.
We've been discussing them in vendor, onboarding and vendor reviews. And also.
In buyer, kickoff meetings and.
We've also developed an Epp products and Services Guide, and it helps buyers trying to find them. So it's it's it's a real issue. And I think it's a.
An international issue all over. This is a huge issue.
So.
Once the vendors are awarded a bid.
The contract is transferred to the contract manager.
And we maintain a very good relationship with them as well.
And as a condition of getting a contract with Osd. Vendors are required to provide us.
Quarterly Sales reporting.
In an online system. It's called the Vendor Report management system. We actually.
Develop the system with a company called B to G. Now.
And we figured out how to integrate.
Identification.
Of environmental and climate products and services.
Into these reports. So.
Epp program uses this data that's collected.
From the system to calculate metrics for our annual report. Now talk about this in a second.
As for training, we've integrated some Epp and climate learning into our training.
But we're really looking forward to doing something like.
What Maryland has done. They are really just, you know, done a wonderful job. And in building a a really great.
Training Program.
So. The other thing Osd has. We have a really good marketing and events program.
And they put out.
Publications are beautiful publications and marketing pieces.
So we work with them on a lot of these, and we always suggest articles. That focus on.
Sort of climate and environment for their newsletter that goes back. 40,000 people.
Every couple of months.
Alright, next slide.
So one very important component of our Epp program.
Is the use of ecolabels? And Chris talked about this a little bit or environmental 3rd party.
So 3rd party certifications mean that the product or service.
Has been independently reviewed and approved. According to the criteria, it's been developed for it.
And 3rd party certifications are an enormous help to procurement staff, because they kind of in effect.
They outsource the environmental review process.
Saving procurement staff an enormous amount of time.
And.
You know.
Often procurement staff. They don't have the background to effectively review complex environmental information.
So on this slide.
There are some of the certifications and standards that we use in our contracts.
Alright next slide. So now I'm just gonna talk a little bit about reporting.
And I believe you know, just like with Maryland, one of the successes of the program.
Is that we're able to report estimated spend on Epps savings.
Reductions in metric tons of carbon. So these are all the sort of the high level metrics.
That we report on and.
Leadership loves these numbers.
So for those of you that do reporting.
You know how labor intensive this can be.
I used to spend. I don't know. 4 months out of the year going through all of our vendor reports to get this data.
So I've been working.
For years. We can actually go to the next slide.
For years to integrate.
Epp into our vendor report system.
As I said earlier.
So that we're able to identify whether a product is an Ep.
Or not.
And.
With the help of AI.
And our incredible performance. Analytics, team.
We've been developing an app prediction model.
To determine very quickly if a product or service is an Epp or not.
So we take this data from the vendor report management system.
And we use it.
Put it into.
This click software. It's a performance analytical software called Click.
And it allows us to view the data in real time.
Slice and dice the data by contract. Spend you name it.
And this allows us to track Epp purchases to identify transit targets.
And to calculate Epp outputs and outcomes. So I'm super excited about this piece.
Because I'm hoping, and it's gonna free me up.
To do more spec development.
So.
I hit the I have one more slide. It's just links. That may be of interest, but.
I don't know how I'm doing on time. I know I've been talking for a long time, but I'd love to talk for a minute or 2 up.
E procurement systems. If there is time.
Absolutely, positively.
Okay, okay, so.
My main point about electronic procurement systems.
Is that if your organization.
Is implementing an electronic procurement system.
Or E. Procurement system.
Make sure that your environmental purchasing folks, whoever that is, that they're at the table.
For that develop for the development of that system. You want them at the table.
You wanna make sure that system has the ability to show whether a product.
As a 3rd party certification or standard.
That the certification with a unique URL, a link to prove.
That it meets the standard.
To show post consumer content, if applicable.
And that the system has some filtering functionality.
So allowing buyers to filter to find products that need.
You know certain certifications or standards, or recycled content requirements, or other types of environmental.
So we commissioned a few years ago.
The responsible purchasing network. They're a nonprofit that is really an expert in state, sustainable procurement.
To work with us to write a white paper called Environmental Claim, Verification.
Finding some recommendations to Osd.
And I'll I'll put it post that link in the chat.
The report. But this is an important document that really outlines.
The roadblocks, and potentially some solutions for manufacturers.
Vendors, 3rd party certifiers.
3rd party, certifier, aggregators.
E. Procurement system, providers and States.
So what we all need to consider.
Excuse me to really help us with making it easier.
To find and purchase environmental and climate products and services. So E procurement system.
Really could play a very important.
Alright! That's it for me.
Shot.
So if I could, and thank you very much for that. It's very helpful, Julia, can I ask you a quick question for all the panelists here ask you a quick question. We have just a couple of minutes left.
So so oftentimes I find that that sorting out American political issues is actually easiest done. If you don't talk about America at all, if we if we look abroad, okay? And.
Environmental sustainability in the procurement world is actually a North South issue in the in Northern hemisphere versus Southern hemisphere. So like, for example, when I talk to a room full of procurement officials, a procurement experts in in Italy, and half of them are from the South, let's say, from from sub-saharan Africa, and half of them are from the north, from Europe.
The Europeans will push.
Environmental sustainability very hard. And the folks from the Southern hemisphere just say we don't care. We don't care about environmental sustainability. We have so many other problems in our countries. We just don't care about this environment. This is a European. Us issue.
We don't care.
How would you respond to that if someone we just don't care? We have so many other things we have to think about. We don't care about environmental sustainability. How would the 3 of you respond cause you're in the middle of this battle on a day to day, week to week, month to month, basis.
So very good. Question.
Think about it for a minute.
I don't know if either of you have.
Any answer.
But you know one thing I I think that we try to do, and we we copied.
Maryland on this.
Is to put out a.
Do a class on saving money.
Using environmentally preferable products.
And you know, I think that that can really cut across a lot of things.
To to.
So talk about how much savings you may have with.
Certain types of products or services.
So that's sort of 1 1 place.
That we've been able to.
Have conversations with those folks that say we don't care about this.
And that will peak their interest.
Emily.
I'll I'll give it a try. But I also really want to hear from Carrie, too.
I think you know in.
Those that are impacted. The most.
Will not have the resources to directly address this thing, and I think
In.
Government, we have an incredible opportunity to leverage our purchasing power. I mean, we have quite a bit of purchasing power in Maryland. I know Massachusetts has significant, always has a great deal even more than Maryland.
To use it for good. And and we should, I mean, if we want to think about what is our Government doing for its people and its citizens.
It's really, truly, the least that we can do is at least.
Procure all of the things that we procure, and a responsible and ethical way. So for me, I mean, it's absolutely the least we can do as governments for our people. We are using most of us taxpayer dollars to do this. And are we? How are we going to.
How you know, what.
What values are leading the way there?
And also, you know, we hear all the time. I'm sure this this is different, politically depending on where you're coming from that well, government is telling us what to do, but is in our lives and telling us what to do. Well, we could at least look at ourselves right, we could at least look at ourselves as government, and lead the way, and say, Well.
Of course our our citizens should be doing responsible and ethical thing. We are doing it. We are doing our best to put our money where mouth is, and and do it ourselves.
Here.
Thank you. Emily.
Alright!
I start by thinking about. You know the values that we've agreed upon. So we have a set of core values within the city of Portland.
We've agreed upon the guiding principles of our sustainable procurement policy. And so that is the starting point.
I have definitely faced that tension of, you know, needing to get projects done yesterday, and with the most cost, effective option possible.
So we need to establish that we need to take that lifecycle cost perspective and to acknowledge that sometimes the most cost effective.
Option now can.
Exacerbate those.
Issues and systems of oppression that we see now.
Integrator.
Magnitude for the future.
Thank you. All. Those were excellent responses. I was really struck listening to the 3 of you, that a lot of this is about leadership, and each of you leads in a different way. But you all 3 respond the same way, which is when you ask a leadership question, why does this, how do we? How do we address those people who say it shouldn't matter? It just doesn't matter.
The response from from a leaders perspective. And you do all of this.
Really wonderfully, is start from start from shared principles, and then move forward from there so.
Thank you all. We run out of time for a really excellent session. And as again to the audience, there's the recording will be available on public procurement international. Thank the 3 of you for joining us and thank the other panels. I know jelly. Molina is listening to thank to everyone participating this program. It's been a great summer series. Have a great rest of the summer.
Take care bye, bye.
Thank you. Bye.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Bye.