The Sustainable Acquisition Program continues to make great progress in working with all of the other departments at Berkeley Lab to lessen our collective environmental impact, including the following initiatives and achievements.
Achievements
- Berkeley Lab received the U.S. Department of Energy’s GreenBuy Gold Award in 2017 and Bronze Award in 2012, recognizing acquisitioning programs that obtain sustainable products to save energy, conserve water, and reduce health and environmental impact.
- Berkeley Lab received the Green Electronics Council’s EPEAT Sustainable Acquisitioning Award in 2019, 2018 and 2016, recognizing excellence in the purchase of sustainable IT products.
- Operations & Maintenance achieved 100 percent purchase of biopreferred products and 100 percent compostable on available items. Sixty percent of food items purchased for the Lab are USDA organic and locally farmed or produced within a 100-mile radius.
- Energy achieved a 95 percent purchase rate on T8 lighting and a 100 percent purchase rate on high-energy commercial boilers.
Initiatives
ENERGY & ELECTRONIC STEWARDSHIP
Berkeley Lab has made great progress in energy and electronic stewardship. Our electronics rate of acquisition of EPEAT and Energy Star products has surpassed 95 percent. Wherever appropriate, outdoor lighting is currently being replaced with new LED lighting fixtures or retrofit kits, as required by DOE’s Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP). Additionally new energy efficient and condensing boilers that meet FEMP requirements have been purchased at a 95 percent rate.
OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE
Facilities uses recycled and bio-based content standards for construction materials and encourages the purchase of recycled paper goods and remanufactured toner cartridges. The maintenance staff purchases sustainable cleaning supplies from the Lab’s eBuy electronic commerce suppliers, which focus on giving priority to sustainable products and suppliers. Procurement continues to work closely with our choice office supply provider, Guy Brown/Staples, to substitute current products with environmentally preferred items.
WASTE
Sustainable Berkeley Lab, including Directorate and EHS personnel, piloted a new waste diversion program at Building 74, which targets a sustained diversion of over 75 percent of waste from landfill to recycling and compost, with a long-term goal of achieving zero waste. A Sustainable Acquisition representative continues to collaborate with the Office of Sustainability and some scientific suppliers on low-density packaging in order to use more biodegradable and returnable packaging.
SUSTAINABLE ACQUISITION
A Sustainable Acquisition Representative has been designated as a point of contact for the Environmental Management System (EMS) team for all Sustainable Acquisition activities between Procurement and other department representatives, and our Procurement website now includes this dedicated area for our Sustainable Acquisition initiatives. New construction actions are expected to meet sustainable acquisition requirements, including applicable “green” clauses, and contracts must adhere to Berkeley Lab’s Construction Guidelines Standard Project Specifications, which incorporate LEED certification and sustainable acquisition.
Procurement also continues to work with the EMS team to educate OCFO staff about sustainable acquisition, and at the same time, we are constantly working with our suppliers to add more green products to our eBuy catalog. Sustainable acquisition is a priority for us, so we continue to improve the new BioPreferred acquisition goals and reporting requirements.
EMPLOYEE OUTREACH
Berkeley Lab works toward better employee awareness of sustainable acquisition, waste conversion and electrical charging stations with periodic articles in Today at Berkeley Lab. In addition, the Lab’s annual spring Earth Week event has been a great success over the past few years, increasing awareness about working and living in an environmentally sustainable manner. With live streaming available for those who can’t be at the events in person, the entire Lab community can take advantage of the opportunity to learn more about climate change, how to “buy green” at work, what the Lab is doing for waste diversion, how to find green commuting alternatives, and what the future holds for electric vehicles.
