Because it impacts the entire institution, an effective environmentally preferable purchasing policy has a big impact on meeting campus sustainability goals, and would be highly influential in driving behavior change.
Sustainable purchasing includes such measures as specifying environmentally friendly products from vendors, reducing shipping frequency and distance with local purchasing, recycling packaging, and requiring third-party product certifications.
The Purchasing Green Team created the following vision statement to guide their policy development, goals, and initiatives:
The purchasing functions at Columbia College Chicago work to secure and/or re-use products and services for the College community to support the academic process in the manner that seeks to reduce all adverse effects to the environment from their fabrication, transportation and usage, while providing the best value in the marketplace.
