Purchasing
Download the Purchasing section of the 2007 UCSC Campus Sustainability Assessment here.
The purpose of UCSC’s Purchasing Department is to support the teaching, research, and public service missions of the University in a cost effective manner while ensuring adherence to University policies and procedures. This includes facilitating purchases, guiding campus purchasers in their decision making, and negotiating contracts with vendors. The overarching goal is to meet the needs of campus customers as quickly and efficiently as possible. This goal shapes the influence of the Purchasing Office on resource use, since they must meet the needs of many and various campus members. Implementing green purchasing, then, is heavily reliant on end-users for success. Likewise, implementation of campus-wide policy depends upon clear communication from the senior administration to ensure that end-users know about and understand green purchasing policies and their importance. The goods and services that the University buys, uses, and disposes of determine, to a large extent, the total ecological footprint and carbon emissions of the institution through the resources that are involved in the manufacture of those goods, and the volume and composition of the campus waste stream. Purchasing, therefore, is a bridge between consumption and the environmental and social impacts of the local and global economies.
Summary of Activities and Performance
• The March 2007 UC Policy on Sustainable Practices (UC Policy) lists 37 strategies or best practices in Section VII, Environmentally Preferable Purchasing
Practices. Some are more clearly defined thanothers. UCSC Purchasing staff are interpreting these 37 points to identify opportunities for immediate implementation and to determine what resources may be needed to implement others.
• UCSC has recently designated part of a Purchasing staff position to: act as a liaison to the UC systemwide Sustainable Purchasing Committee, identify opportunities for implementation at UCSC, develop processes for sustainable purchasing, and facilitate implementation of the UC Policy. This is the first time that Purchasing staff time has been devoted explicitly to sustainable purchasing practice.
• In 2005, UCSC Purchasing centralized operations from 26 departments to one central office. Purchasing introduced an online shopping tool, CruzBuy, enabling end users to make purchases. Approximately half of all campus purchases are now made using CruzBuy. CruzBuy could provide opportunities for embedding sustainability criteria in the University’s purchasing systems and habits.
Kate Cunningham, Strategic Sourcing Buyer
UCSC Purchasing Department
(831) 459-2882
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