The Lowell Center for Sustainable Production has just published a new report profiling six institutions that are taking advanced steps to identify and screen out potentially toxic substances in the products they purchase and find safer alternatives. Danish retailer Coop, architectural firm Perkins+Will, Kaiser Permanente, Oregon Environmental Council, Seattle City Light utility, and the National Institutes of Health are profiled. Cases include program overview, drivers, how organizations keep up with changing science, key partners, and lessons learned. The report also discusses the pros and cons of ecolabels, and provides a listing of useful resources and tools. The report should be useful to anyone starting a program to purchase products with safer chemistries, or those looking to set up something more advanced. It can be found at http://saferalternatives.org//assets/media/documents/uml-rpt-greenpurchasing-715-web.pdf
The Lowell Center will be co-sponsoring a webinar on the report with the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council, Responsible Purchasing Network, and Green Electronics Council in September. For more information, contact me (Amy Perlmutter) at amy@aperlmutter.com.
