NEWS ADVISORY: 2016 Awards for Sustainable Purchasing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Cuchulain Kelly, 202-607-2600 x202, cuchulain@sustainablepurchasing.org

NEWS ADVISORY:

2016 AWARDS FOR SUSTAINABLE PURCHASING

Leadership Awards Banquet at 6:30pm on May 25th at the Kellogg Conference Center

WASHINGTON DC – On Wednesday, May 25^th, the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC) will recognize thirty-four organizations and seven individuals who have leveraged institutional purchasing power to advance the long term health and vitality of society, economies, and the planet.

The award winners employed a wide range of sustainable purchasing strategies and documented measurable environmental, social, and/or economic benefits. Examples include:

• The Commonwealth of Massachusett’s Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program saved over $28 million in FY2015, while reducing air pollution equivalent to removing 64,000 cars from the road.
• Philips Corporation executed a long-term Power Purchase Agreement with a wind farm, saving the company money while taking its North American operations carbon neutral.
• The State of Minnesota saved $58,000 switching to remanufactured toner cartridges for copiers and printers and prevented over 940 metric tons of waste by increasing the recycled content in the paper it buys.
• Waste Management planned procurement and materials management strategies that enables 564,000 fans to attend the 2015 Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour without any waste going to the landfill.

Winners of the Council’s Outstanding Case Study Award will be honored for documenting how they achieved these results in detailed case studies that are published in SPLC’s Case Study Library. For the first time, these awardees include case studies of sustainable purchasing leadership by individuals. (See full list of Outstanding Case Study Award winners below.)

The winners of the Council’s highest honors – nine juried Leadership Awards – will also be revealed and presented with their awards during the ceremony. The Leadership Award winners were selected by a prestigious jury from government, the private sector, and civil society:

• Akiva Fishman, Senior Program Officer, Forest, WWF
• Betsy Hayes, Chief Procurement Officer, State of Minnesota
• Bjorn Claeson, Director, Electronics Watch
• George Schutter, Chief Procurement Officer, District of Columbia
• Jim Butler, Chief Procurement Officer, State of California
• Justin Troy, Sourcing Manager, FedEx Corporation
• Lynne Olson, Corporate Scientist, Global Sustainability, EcoLab
• Matt Swibel, Director, Corporate Sustainability, Lockheed Martin
• Tim Hopper, Responsible Sourcing Manager, Microsoft
• Yolanda Miller, Deputy Purchasing Officer, City of Austin

The Leadership Awards recognize organizations that have demonstrated or actively supported the kind of leadership envisioned in the SPLC’s Principles for Leadership in Sustainable Purchasing. The Principles state that an organization demonstrates leadership in sustainable purchasing through:

• Understanding. Understanding the environmental, social, and economic impacts of its purchasing.
• Commitment. Taking responsibility for the environmental, social, and economic impacts of its purchasing by committing to an action plan.
• Results. Delivering on its commitment to improve the environmental, social, and economic impacts of its purchasing.
• Innovation. Actively promoting internal and external innovation
  that advances a positive future.
• Transparency. Soliciting and disclosing information that supports a marketplace of innovation.

“The winners of these Awards have each demonstrated their commitment to leadership in sustainable purchasing,” says SPLC Executive Director Jason Pearson. “Collectively, they focus the powerful purchashing influence of organizations — in public and private sectors alike — to advance a socially just, ecologically robust, and economically prosperous future. The winners of SPLC’s Leadership Awards exemplify, encourage, and support a constructive cycle of innovation that will define the global marketplace of tomorrow.”

About the Council:

Founded in 2013, the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council convenes buyers, suppliers, and public interest advocates to develop programs that simplify and standardize sustainable purchasing efforts by large organizations. The Council has quickly attracted, from a wide variety of sectors and regions, more than 150 members with over $200 billion in collective purchasing power. In 2015, SPLC released Guidance for Leadership in Sustainable Purchasing v1.0, which has been called the “most comprehensive literature to date” on sustainable purchasing. More than one hundred organizations are now using SPLC’s Guidance, resources, and online community of practice to create strategic sustainable purchasing programs, or enhance existing ones.

About the Awards:                   www.sustainablepurchasing.org/awards
About the Principles:               http://www.sustainablepurchasing.org/principles
About the Guidance:                https://www.sustainablepurchasing.org/guidance
About SPLC’s members:          https://www.sustainablepurchasing.org/members

List of Outstanding Case Study Awards:

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