In early 2007, Ontario city leaders determined that improving sustainability was a “core value”, and began the push to become one of the most sustainable cities in California. The city implemented several sustainability initiatives as a result, including development of green procurement practices in conjunction with the California Sustainability Alliance.
Currently, Ontario’s green procurement policy emphasizes the purchase of recycled products, as stated in the Municipal Code and in the Purchasing Department’s Policies. However, beyond just recycled content, it is also important to look at other environmental attributes of products, such as energy consumption, toxicity, air and water pollution, materials efficiency (including packaging), and the disposal impact at the end of useful life. Additionally, it is also valuable to adopt a single, comprehensive procurement policy rather than initiating a series of smaller, discrete projects with no solid overall framework to sustain them.
In partnership with the California Sustainability Alliance, Ontario has completed a General Plan Update that includes broad sustainability goals, and the city has increased its efforts to weave sustainability practices though all city departments. These new developments will help pave the way for the city to pursue more comprehensive and effective green procurement practices in the future.
Approach
Greening one’s procurement practices involves much more than simply purchasing recycled paper. A comprehensive procurement policy should incorporate a broad set of actionable steps that reduce overall negative effects on the environment as well as on human health. The key resources and guidelines that the California Sustainability Alliance developed with Ontario are described below:
- Green Procurement Guide for Local Governments
This guide provides a suite of tools and recommendations for how local governments can green their procurement practices and also includes resources for identifying and buying green products.
- “Piggy-backing” on Green State Contracts
Through a survey of current Ontario purchasing practices, the Alliance identified green products that the city is able to purchase via existing state contracts with green product providers. For products that cannot be purchased through state contracts, the Alliance provided recommendations on additional green product options including information on environmental attributes and contact information for vendors.
- Case Studies
The Alliance created case studies of five local governments that have implemented green procurement policy/programs: San Francisco, Berkeley, Santa Monica, King County, and Los Angeles County. These case studies include details of effective strategies that have been implemented by these local governments to start and strengthen their green procurement procedures and policies.
Challenges
Through interviews and research conducted with the city of Ontario, the California Sustainability Alliance identified some key challenges and barriers Ontario faces in greening its procurement practices and policies.
- Information Overload
There is a great deal of confusing, contradictory, or duplicative sustainability information directed at local government leaders. This over-abundance of information is hindering the progress of the city in greening its procurement practices.
- Lack of Coordination and Direction
Although Ontario is interested in implementing greener procurement practices, a key challenge it faces in moving forward is the lack of coordination and vision for the city’s sustainability effort. Staff has insufficient guidance regarding goals, priorities, and concrete implementation approaches. One possible reason for this challenge is that the city at present has no official high level committee, workgroup, or team whose role is to set those necessary goals and objectives and develop a coordinated approach for achieving sustainability.
- Lack of Resources
Another key challenge is lack of financial and staff resources. Many of the local governments with strong green procurement programs (such as Santa Monica and King County) have either a separate Environmental Department that works with the Purchasing Department to develop and maintain the program, or a separate subgroup within the Purchasing Department dedicated entirely to running the program. At this time, the city of Ontario, like many local governments across California, does not have staff dedicated solely to greening or sustainability issues.
Implementation
To increase the capacity of city departments to procure green products, the California Sustainability Alliance and the city of Ontario developed a green procurement section on the Purchasing Department’s Intranet page. The webpage is designed to effectively promote green procurement without requiring significant investment of staff time and attention.
In addition to continually developing its Intranet webpage, Ontario is investigating other steps to further its green procurement practices, including updating its municipal code and purchasing procedures to include language that promotes the purchase of goods with broadly defined sustainability attributes, beyond simply considering recycled content.
