Green Businesses Walk the Talk

We recently had our annual environmental forum for faculty and staff of the university. This year, our focus was on green purchasing decisions. Consistent with previous years, we tried to make the event as sustainable as possible. We offered organic coffee, local food by local caterers, and biodegradable utensils (with composting bins available for disposal, of course!) Our biggest accomplishment of sustainability for the day was that we were able to broadcast live to satellite campuses so that those who wished to attend did not have to travel. We had two keynote speakers from Rutgers University: Kevin Lyons, chief procurement officer, and Magda Comeau, green purchasing manager. They gave an interesting and lively talk about how Rutgers became involved in green purchasing. They introduced us to their program, how it got started, and what successes and barriers they’ve had along the way. They gave us a detailed explanation of what their standards are and went through the process of how they choose their products.

Prior to the forum, the world of purchasing was unknown to me. I learned a lot from all of the speakers at the forum, most especially the keynotes. I was amazed at how specific and detailed their process is for choosing a product. It is a big accomplishment that they have gotten companies to live up to their ‘green’ promises.  They’ve been able to make a business prove they actually evaluate the environmental impact of their products or actions and are not just taking part in green washing. Rutgers is one of many setting an example of how a university can be a green leader in a community. Their successes were very encouraging to me and I hope that those from purchasing of our university learned something new to integrate into our already green processes so we can continue to grow as a sustainable community.