Purchasing Services finds hidden green in commonly-used products

Take a walk around campus and chances are you’ll quickly notice examples of Badger efforts to “go green” — recycling bins at every turn, composting receptacles and biodegradable to-go containers at food service locations, the Community Garden at Eagle Heights. Green Badgers aren’t that hard to spot. But sometimes sustainability is a little more subtle.

Purchasing Services, in partnership with Administrative Process Redesign and as part of the Administrative Excellence initiative, has organized a team of facilities personnel from across campus to review and select a standard set of common-use products, including paper hand towels, toilet paper, plastic trash bags and cleaning solutions. Many of these are so “behind the scenes” that you never give them a second thought, but the impact is no less real.

Take, for example, the team’s efforts on green cleaning product use across campus. The team has agreed to use a standard set of floor, window, and general purpose cleaners, each of which carries certification by a third-party environmental organization, Green Seal. These products also use metered dilution dispensers for refilling daily-use containers, reducing consumption and waste. Agreeing on standard products also provides leverage to negotiate better pricing.

University Housing is also piloting the use of ozone-infused water as a chemical-free cleaner. Aqueous ozone, as the infused water is known, has been shown to kill viruses and bacteria and eliminate odor faster than bleach and chlorine-based cleaners, and converts back to water and oxygen so no chemicals are washing down the drain.

“Our teams have been very impressed with results we’ve gotten in the pilot,” says Jodi Krause, custodial services program supervisor at University Housing, adding that the staff found the product to be fast and effective. The pilot is set to expand to several residence halls over the next few months.

The other common-use products offer further opportunities to reduce the university’s environmental impact. For example, recycled, unbleached paper hand towels will be used in every campus unit, reducing greenhouse gasses and the use of chemical manufacturing processes that are potentially harmful to the environment. Also, by limiting product variety and centralizing distribution, truck deliveries — and the gas consumption and emissions they produce — will be reduced on campus.

In addition to the environmental impacts, standardization also brings significant cost savings. By limiting the number of vendors and products, the university has negotiated improved pricing and streamlined ordering, shipping and storage. These changes are projected to save campus almost $35,000 per year on paper towels alone. And for toilet paper, the estimate is more than $54,000.

“We’re being very thoughtful about building for the future of the university,” says Martha Kerner, assistant vice chancellor for business services. “When we can be good stewards of our financial resources and have a positive environmental impact at the same time, we know we’re headed in the right direction. We’re very proud of this work.”

Purchasing Services is also extending its efforts where all can participate, such as switching to remanufactured printer toner. Remanufactured toner means that empty cartridges are recovered, cleaned, refilled, tested and resold — a much more sustainable practice than throwing out single-use cartridges. EIS Office Solutions was recently added as a remanufactured toner vendor to the Shop@UW site, making it easy for everyone on campus to be greener and save money.

In the last seven-month period, campus purchased nearly 6,000 new toner cartridges from original equipment manufacturers at a cost of approximately $703,000. To illustrate how favorable the current pricing from EIS Office Solutions is, had their comparable products been available during the same seven-month time period, campus would have spent only $221,000 — and saved $482,000.

“These are exactly the types of things we need to pay attention to on this campus,” says Darrell Bazzell, vice chancellor for finance and administration. “These are sound business practices that help us achieve our strategic priority of being responsible stewards of our resources. The time and money saved by these simple measures will go a long way towards our educational and outreach priorities without compromising our commitment to high quality.”

—Janet DesChenes