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Sustainable Procurement Requirements

Requirements

A procurement professional must review these requirements; determine which apply, and incorporate appropriate specifications and criteria in the solicitation document to evaluate supplier responsiveness to the state’s sustainability requirements. Refer to Terms and Definitions for definitions of terms used in this section.

Procurement Preferences

This section provides details for when an agency must use or consider each preference provision for sustainable procurement. Consider the following statutory requirements, where applicable:


The definition of  recycled material is any material that would otherwise be a useless, unwanted or discarded material except for the fact that the material still has useful physical or chemical properties after serving a specific purpose and can, therefore, be reused or recycled. Recycled products are all materials, goods and supplies where the percent of total weight meets both of the following criteria:
  • More than 50 percent total weight consists of secondary and post-consumer waste.
  • More than 10 percent total weight consists of post-consumer waste.
Apart from the requirement of a procuring agency to award a contract to the lowest or best offer, and according to ORS 279A.125, a procuring agency must give preference to products manufactured from recycled materials when its uses the Competitive Sealed Bidding or Competitive Sealed Proposal procurement method (refer to OAR 125-246-0322).
To be eligible for the preference, the supplier must:
  • Certify the percent of recycled material and the post-consumer and secondary waste content in the product offered.
  • Indicate which products offered contain verifiable recycled materials.
Additionally, the product offered by the supplier must meet all of the following four criteria:
  1. The recycled product is available.
  2. The recycled product meets applicable standards.
  3. The recycled product can be substituted for a comparable non-recycled product.
  4. The recycled product’s costs do not exceed the costs of non-recycled products by more than five percent or a higher percentage if a written determination is made by the procuring agency and detailed in the solicitation document.
Contracts including products manufactured from recycled materials must include appropriate clauses that allow for inspection, audits, plant visits, invoice examination, laboratory analysis, and other documents, as deemed necessary.

This clause allows an agency to confirm that the product meets supplier-certified percentages of recycled materials, post-consumer and secondary waste stated in its offer. If an agency finds that the product fails to meet the certified levels, state reimbursement or contract termination can result.

State law (ORS 279B.025) requires that agencies establish procurement practices that ensure, to the maximum extent economically feasible, the procurement of goods that may be recycled or reused when discarded.​​​

State rule (OAR 125-246-0324) promotes the use of recyclable or biodegradable products for food service and packaging.

A recycled paper product must meet either one of the following criteria:
  • 50 percent of its fiber weight consisting of secondary waste materials.
  • 25 percent of its fiber weight consisting of post-consumer waste.
State law requires that no less than 35 percent of state agency procurements of paper products may be from recycled paper products (refer to ORS 279A.155), which include food service and food packaging that are 100% paper or paper products (refer to OAR 125-246-0324).

Recycled oil is oil that has been prepared for reuse as a petroleum product by refining, re-refining, reclaiming, reprocessing or other means, if the preparation or use is operationally safe, environmentally sound and complies with all laws and regulations. State law (refer to ORS 279B.240) requires that procurement specifications for lubricating oil and industrial oil must allow for the consideration of recycled oils and may not require that oils be manufactured from virgin materials.

State law (ORS 279B.275) requires that specifications encourage the procurement of products containing recycled PETE, which refers to post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate material, as well as other recycled plastic resins, provided similarities in quality and price exist between recycled PETE products and products not qualifying as recycled PETE products.

State law (ORS 279B.280) requires that specifications encourage the use of recycled products whenever economically feasible, if the quality of a recycled product is functionally equal to the same product manufactured with virgin resources, including but not limited to:
  • Recycled paper.
  • Recycled oil.
  • Recycled PETE products.
All procurement specifications must encourage the procurement of recycled products, except for specifications that preserve public health and safety.

State law (ORS 279C.510) provides that every public improvement contract for demolition must contain a condition requiring the contractor to salvage or recycle construction and demolition debris, if feasible and cost-effective.

State law (ORS 279B.225) provides that every public contract for lawn and landscape maintenance must contain a condition requiring the contractor to salvage, recycle, compost or mulch yard waste material at an approved site, if feasible and cost-effective.

DAS Statewide Policy 107-009-0080-PO gives priority to less toxic, safer products, which is required by EO 12-05. At a minimum, a solicitation must require that the Toxic Focus List, maintained by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), be used for identification of Chemicals of Concern.

State law (ORS 279B.0250) requires agencies to procure electronic products in a manner that considers the impact of the electronic products upon the environment and public health, in addition to consideration of economic and community interests, according to goals of sustainability. Considerations include, but are not limited to the procurement of electronic products that (refer to OAR 125-247-0165):
  • May be recycled or reused when discarded.
  • Meet national certifications for green and sustainable practices.
  • Promote toxic use reduction.
  • Reduce or eliminate the use of harmful chemicals such as lead and mercury.
DAS Statewide Policy 107-011-050_PR adopts the performance standards used by the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) and directs agencies in the acquisition and disposition of electronic equipment.
The policy objectives include:
  • Preventing hazardous materials from entering the waste stream.
  • Considering the "end-of-life" cost in the overall cost of acquiring electronic equipment.
  • Maximizing the re-use of all universal waste and materials contained in or used in electronic equipment.
  • Encouraging the design and manufacture of new electronic equipment with re-use in mind.
  • Refurbishing electronic equipment for re-use with minimal energy consumption.
  • Preventing the release of sensitive or protected information from the state's control.

Directives

Executive Order 17-20 Efficient Equipment Procurement Standards

The Governor issued Executive Order 17-20 in November 2017. This order includes a directive that all state purchased equipment must meet high-efficiency energy and water specifications.

Resource: Read about the full requirements of EO 17-20 in the Efficient Equipment Procurement Requirements (EEPR) document or its excerpts.

The requirement applies to equipment purchased by the state and equipment used inside of state owned buildings. The equipment categories include:

  • Appliances
  • Electronics and IT Equipment
  • Food Service
  • HVAC
  • Lighting
  • Water and Plumbing
The following table shows key efficiency standards for each type of equipment:

 




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