Green Spend Snapshot FY2019-2020

Information
Data on the City's FY19-20 green product spend in select categories

As guided by the City’s Sustainable Procurement Policy, the City of Portland aims to take a comprehensive approach to procuring goods and services such that environmental and social impacts are incorporated into procurement decisions along with traditional fiscal considerations. While the scope of this work affects a large variety of City purchases, the following data is a green spend snapshot from those City contracts where vendor usage reports are available. 

Office Furniture

Summary of the amount of green furniture products purchased by the City

In Fiscal Year 2019-2020, the City purchased over $7 million of office furniture, of which 84% met one or more of the following requirements/standards:

  • California standard specification 01350, indoor air quality requirements for building materials
  • Business + Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association's (BIFMA) level™certification
  • Health Care Without Harm Healthy Interiors criteria
  • Cradle to Cradle certification

Office Paper

Of the City's purchase of white, cut-sheet, 20lb copy/printer paper (by volume) in Fiscal Year 2019-2020:

  • 72% was 100% post-consumer waste (PCW) recycled content paper
  • 24% was 30-50% PCW recycled content paper; and
  • 4% was virgin paper. 

The benefits associated with our purchase of recycled content paper instead of virgin paper include:

  • saving 996 trees; and
  • reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 195 metric tons. 

Benefits calculated using the Environmental Paper Network Paper Calculator Version 4.0.   

Office Electronics

The City has committed to purchasing green electronics, defined as being either ENERGY STAR certified or EPEAT registered electronics.  In Fiscal Year 2019-2020, 97% of the City's office electronics purchases (by spend and as defined by the following product categories) were green products.  The following breaks this achievement down by product category:

  • 97% desktops
  • 98% monitors
  • 99% Notebooks
  • 100% Tablets
  • 95% Standard Printers and Multi-Function Devices
  • 100% Mobile "Smart" Phones
  • 97% Servers

The benefits associated with our purchase of green electronics (over the lifetime of the products) include:

  • 1.8 million kWh in energy use reduction
  • 460 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions reduction
  • $81,700 dollars in electricity cost savings

For desktops, monitors, notebooks, mobile phones, and servers: benefits calculated using the Green Electronic Council's EPEAT Benefits Calculator, accessed March 2021.  For multi-function devices and printers: benefits calculated using the EPA's EEBC for Imaging Equipment version 1.

Office Supplies

In Fiscal Year 2019-2020, 28% of the City's office supplies purchases from its office supplies contractor, Office Depot, were "green" products as determined by the Office Depot Green Business Review Report for the City's account.  Note: this does not include most white copy/printer paper as that is provided under a different contract.