Purchasing can build awareness of its efforts by drafting communications to the Barnard community to build awareness of environmental options, and by promoting environmentally friendly products through newspaper articles and other venues. In cases where environmentally sustainable products are more expensive, Purchasing can give community members the option of choosing either the standard or the more expensive option, taking care to advocate the environmental benefits of the more expensive product to departments20 and to make the option readily apparent on request forms and catalogues. When a certain sustainable product is financially viable or of special environmental significance, Purchasing can mandate its purchase. The buying power of the Purchasing department may make vendors willing to change their policies to keep the College’s business. Purchasing can send letters or organize meetings with vendors to express the College’s environmental commitment, explain that environmental criteria will be an ongoing consideration in purchasing goods, and invite them to join the school in improving their products. Purchasing can reduce its own departmental waste by accelerating the transition to a paperless ordering system. Currently, almost all forms and requests submitted to Purchasing are in paper form21.
Bibliography Architectural Energy Corporation and Pennsylvania State University. Model Electric Restaurant. B24-B39. Backman, Mikael. 1983. “Energy in the Food-Producing System”. Energy in Packaging and Waste. Ed. A.V. Bridgwater and K. Lidgren. London: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. Baer, Hans A. 2002. “On the Nature of Our Workplace as Academic Anthropologiests: Implications for Critical Teaching and Research.” Practicing Anthropology 24(3):46-48. Barlett, Peggy. 2004. “No Longer Waiting for Someone Else to Do It: A Tale of Reluctant Leadership.” Sustainability on Campus: Stories and Strategies for Change. Ed. Peggy F. Barlett and Geoffrey W. Chase. Barnard College Facilities. 2005. September 16, 2006. < http://www.barnard.edu/facilities/> Barnard College Office of the President. 2006. Office of the President. October 15, 2006. < http://www.barnard.columbia.edu/president/> Barnard College SRI. 2006. Barnard Committee on Socially Responsible Investing. September 23, 2006. <http://www.barnard.edu/sri/index.html>
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Advertisement of environmentally sustainable purchasing options can be posted on the Purchasing website, at the Purchasing Office, at the Stores counter, on Purchasing forms, through e-mail, through changes to general information given to faculty and staff (i.e., the Faculty Guide developed by the Office of the Provost), and a number of other forums. 21 Community members may request items from Stores through an online form. Stores is the small supply of basic office equipment maintained by Purchasing.
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