Green Purchasing—GPOs

Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO's) - Environmentally Preferrable Purchasing (EPP)

In This Section

• Ask your GPO rep for information on EPP available on contract
• Ask for easy access to EPP information
• Serve on contract development committees
• Request development of custom EPP contracts
• Don’t give up
• Contract for EPP services
• Model GPO/Health System Contract Language
• H2E’s GPO Champions

Benefits of Group Purchasing Organization membership for hospitals include reduced supply costs, product standardization, and market leverage. Often members must commit to buying a specified volume through the GPO contracts or must commit to buying only products available through the GPO for certain product areas. This can limit how much the hospital can change the products it buys without involving the GPOs. But as service organizations, GPOs must respond to their members’ preferences. If hospitals clearly communicate their preference for environmentally preferable products, GPOs will respond by sourcing EP products.

In fact most of the country’s largest GPOs are implementing environmentally preferable purchasing strategies in cooperation with H2E. (link for more on GPOs actively involved with H2E as Champions for Change, and some brief news items on their EPP activities.) GPOs are revising their contracts to include environmental criteria or disclosure requirements in their "Requests for Proposals" and are willing to raise environmental issues in regular meetings with their suppliers and in contract negotiations. Because of their significant buying power, GPOs may be more successful than individual facilities in influencing manufacturers or distributors to provide alternative products.

As a first step to developing a full-fledged Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program for your facility, H2E recommends you work with your GPO to gain access to environmentally preferable products while still taking advantage of the purchasing power offered by their volume purchasing. This document offers some tips on how to get started taking advantage of your GPO’s existing EPP resources, or encouraging them to develop contracts for EP products if they have not already done so.

Ask your GPO rep for information on EPP available on contract

It is important to communicate your desire for environmentally preferable (EP) product alternatives to your GPO. Start by asking your GPO contact what EP contracts are available, and how the products on contract were screened for environmental benefits. (Some examples of common EP products are mercury-free medical devices or lab chemicals, recycled-content janitorial papers, green cleaning supplies, energy efficient office or kitchen equipment.) Express your interest in changing your hospital’s purchasing habits to measurably improve environmental performance. Many GPOs hesitate to contract for EP products because they are concerned that their members will not accept alternatives to the products they are accustomed to.

Ask for easy access to EPP information

Explain to your GPO contact that you need to be able to find and make use of EP product contracts easily. Ask the GPO to provide a central link in their ordering system to all EP product contracts, or contracts that contain some EP items, and/or to create pop-ups or other ways to promote EP alternatives when you are visiting the contract database. (For example, when you look at a mercury-containing thermostat, a pop-up gives you the contract number and name of a mercury-free alternative also available on contract.) In addition, ask them to provide links from specific commodity contracts to fact sheets, cost comparisons, environmental benefit calculations and other such materials that can help you justify your purchasing changes. Ask how you can search for contracts by environmental attributes you value, such as mercury-free products, recycled-content products or PBT-free items. If this search capacity does not exist, request that it be created.

Serve on contract development committees

Most GPOs have committees made up of representatives from member health care facilities that help make contract decisions. By serving on such a committee, you can bring information about EP products to the table and ask that environmental specifications be included in the contract language or that environmentally preferable alternatives be included on the contract. H2E and Health Care Without Harm provide numerous resources you can use for this work, including model specification language, information on vendors of alternative products, and examples of other entities that have contracted for specific EP products. Usually product review/advisory committee members are nominated by regional GPO representatives, so let your GPO contact know if you are interested in this work, so s/he can nominate you.

Request development of custom EPP contracts

If your organization has a GPO relationship that allows for custom contracting, work with Materials Management/Purchasing staff, your facility’s EPP or Green Team, or other staff involved in product specification to develop an environmental purchasing priorities list. This can address particular product areas, specify substances you wish to avoid in your purchasing – e.g. mercury, PVC – or set out positive attributes you wish products to possess – e.g. energy efficiency, recyclability. Communicate your needs to your GPO through the appropriate channels and ask them to establish contracts with specifications that meet your requirements for environmentally sound products.

Don’t give up

If your GPO rep is not able to provide you with detailed information on the EP products available to you through the GPO’s contracts, ask them for the name of a person at GPO headquarters who can provide you with more detailed information. (For H2E Champion GPOs, get in touch with the primary H2E contact, who is listed on their profile link to GPO EPP page list) . Explain that you need specific information in order to plan and justify changes in purchasing practices within your organization. When contacting central GPO staff, be specific in your requests – ask for a list of environmentally preferable product categories they have on contract, the specifications they used to develop the contracts, and the cost, performance, and environmental impact comparisons they developed to review alternatives.

Contract for EPP services

If your efforts are unsuccessful, the staff team tasked with EPP at your facility should express your need for more responsive service to those in your organization who negotiate your GPO contracts. Ask them to contractually require your GPO to respond to your organization’s needs for environmentally preferable products, making the provision of such product and services an integral part of their relationship with you.

H2E’s GPO Champions

Some of the nation’s largest GPOs are H2E Champions for Change and have committed to specific environmental purchasing initiatives. They have eliminated mercury from contract categories, established general supplier survey questions for all contracts, and are working to make their information on vendors’ and products’ environmental qualifications accessible to purchasers.