American Forces Press Service (Oct. 22, 2004): DoD issues 'green' procurement policy to benefit environment.WASHINGTON -- The Defense Department issued a new procurement policy this week urging employees and military to "buy green." The new "green procurement Green procurement means the procurement of products and services that have less impact on the environment than their traditional counterparts. Greener procurement incorporates environmental considerations into decisions in addition to the conventional criteria of price and quality. " policy requires the department's civilian and military personnel to purchase products and services that benefit the environment, said Alex Beehler, DoD's chief of environmental safety and occupational health, in an Oct. 21 interview with the Pentagon Channel The Pentagon Channel is a TV channel broadcasting military news and information for the 2.6 million members of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is widely available on US cable television, can be viewed FTA in Europe, Africa, the Americas and most of Asia via satellite, and can be viewed and American Forces Press Service The American Forces Press Service (AFPS) is the news service provided by the American Forces Information Service, part of the United States Department of Defense. It supplies news stories pertaining to the activities of U.S. military forces around the world. . He noted that products such as recycled office supplies Office supplies is the generic term that refers to all supplies regularly used in offices by businesses and other organizations, from private citizens to governments, who works with the collection, refinement, and output of information (colloquially referred to as "paper work"). and lubricants lubricants preparations for the lubrication of passages to reduce frictional injury, e.g. oily preparations, including petroleum jelly, lanolin or water-soluble preparations such as methyl cellulose. , and biomass-produced goods such as energy, are among the types of purchases the policy requires. Biomass biomass Weight or total quantity of living organisms of one animal or plant species (species biomass) or of all the species in the community (community biomass), commonly referred to as a unit area or volume of the habitat. uses agricultural and organic wastes to create renewable energy Renewable energy utilizes natural resources such as sunlight, wind, tides and geothermal heat, which are naturally replenished. Renewable energy technologies range from solar power, wind power, and hydroelectricity to biomass and biofuels for transportation. such as electricity and industrial process heat and steam, Beehler explained. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Energy Department statistics, biomass was the leading source of renewable energy in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. last year. Beehler said the green procurement policy is the latest endeavor by DoD to forge its reputation as being a good environmental steward. That reputation, he added, stretches back some 30 years and includes myriad DoD recycling programs. In fact, the first recycling policy developed by DoD was under Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's first term in 1976. Like that policy, Beehler said, this new policy is "intrinsically the right thing to do. "It's the right thing to do toward our environment, toward the mission, toward making the lives of our civilian and military employees and families much better by having a safer, better Earth." Beehler said there is no requirement under the policy to purchase green products that "cost more, are scarce, or have other limitations." However, he added that consideration should be given to those items that over the long term would produce more cost savings or improved efficiency. He said training will be provided to help those directly involved in the purchasing process Purchasing Purchasing is the formal process of buying goods and services. The Purchasing Process can vary from one organization to another but there are some key elements that are common throughout The process usually starts with a 'Demand' or requirements to identify green procurement items. The training will also help raise the awareness of procurers to buy green, he added, "so that it becomes incorporated into their daily operations to look at pursuing green procurement opportunities wherever they realistically exist." The department plans to develop a catalog that will show DoD procurement officers and employees where they can find and purchase green products, he said. Beehler said that for now, DoD is focusing on implementing the new policy, not enforcing it. Plans call for an environmental management system that will monitor compliance through "environmental audits and environmental contracting to make sure that the policy is successfully implemented," he added. Beehler, who has worked in the environmental field for 20 years, said the new policy underlines DoD's commitment to the environment. He pointed out that environmental programs in the past were committed to making sure things didn't get worse and to reducing the waste and the pollution that had already occurred. "In the beginning, that made perfectly good sense," he said. "But as time has evolved and as our programs have matured, we really need to do a lot more." He said the time has come "to go beyond environmental compliance," and that the focus now should be on "improving the environment rather than just protecting it." The new policy, he said, "will empower each individual to have a vital stake in improving the environment." Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USA |
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