Environmentally Preferable Purchasing
Once you have made your commitment to supporting sustainable health care in your organisation, it is time to let vendors know they must match their product offerings with your expectations and desire to source environmentally-friendly (green) products and services.
What you buy and how you buy it is significant and your decisions can help reduce the environmental and human health impacts of care delivery.
Whether purchasing a single piece of equipment, medical devices and treatment items, or entering into a lease or maintenance agreement, adding suitable procurement language to your tender documents and contracts is essential.
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) means purchasing goods and services whose environmental impacts have been analyzed and determined to be less harmful to human health and the environment when compared to competing products and services.
Benefits can include:
- Reduced harmful impact(s) on the environment
- Reduced overall costs
- Reduced or elimination of waste and disposal costs
- Improved worker safety
- Healthier patient care and treatment environment(s)
- Reduction in exposure to hazardous or toxic substances such as paints, solvents and cleaners
In partnership with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care (www.greenhealthcare.ca), has prepared a draft green purchasing guide, providing a template for other health care institutions and organisations to implement similar policies and procedures.
We invite you to download and review the document. This document is in the process of being updated, and we would love your feedback so we can improve the document’s usability and quality. neil.ritchie@greenhealthcare.ca
Our thanks to Meg Sears PhD, Dr. Matthew Bromwich and Dr. Curtis Lavoie for their collaboration on this document.
