Public entities have major purchasing power — this means your purchases can make a positive impact on human health, the environment, and your budget.
The MPCA's Sustainable Purchasing program works to increase the availability of sustainable products on state contracts, help public entities green their procurement programs, and share news and information with the sustainable purchasing community. The Sustainable Purchasing program also works with the Product Stewardship team on the issue of standards, certifications, and ecolabels.
Determine your impact
You can calculate the impact of your purchases through a variety of calculators.
The premier tool for measuring the environmental impacts of paper and discovering the best paper choices. Use it to quantify the impacts of your paper usage, and to compare different grades and types of paper with varying amounts of recycled content.
Developed to assist organizations in estimating the environmental and economic benefits of greening their purchase, use and disposal of electronics. (Federal Electronics Challenge)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed this tool to estimate benefits from adopting "green" cleaning practices. This tool enables users to identify which green cleaning measures will have the greatest impact in reducing their use of hazardous chemicals and in preventing pollution.
Spreadsheet-based calculators to estimate how much money and energy you can save purchasing ENERGY STAR certified products. (ENERGY STAR)