About the Green Schools Buying Guide

The Green Schools Buying Guide is intended to help people transform the health and sustainability of their schools. The Guide is not exhaustive, but rather is a primer intended to help people get started on the why, what, and how of environmentally preferable purchasing for schools, to help people avoid reinventing the wheel, and to help navigate the growing universe of information on the topic. 

The Guide was developed by the Green Schools Initiative, in partnership with the Green Purchasing Institute. Primary authors include: Deborah Moore, Francesca Vietor, and Lindsey Fransen (on behalf of Green Schools Initiative), and Alicia Culver (for Green Purchasing Institute, especially the sections on green cleaners and green papers).

We wish to thank the many organizations that have shared green buying information and resources with us. It is encouraging that there are now so many choices! We would like to especially acknowledge the Green Guardian and its EPP Guide, the California Integrated Waste Management Board, Green Seal and EcoLogo, the Kokua Hawai'i Foundation, Coop America, and the Healthy Building Network for sharing their buying tools, product lists, and sample purchasing policies with us. We have benefited from their pioneering efforts; any mistakes, omissions, or errors are those of the authors.

Support for the Green Schools Buying Guide was provided by the San Francisco Foundation, the Lawson Valentine Foundation, the Morning Glory Family Foundation, and other donors and supporters. Green Schools Initiative, and its supporters and partners, did not receive any fees or contributions from manufacturers or suppliers included in this Guide.

Please send comments, questions, or information you think we should include in the Guide to infoATgreenschoolsDOTnet.

Thank you for your interest and for greening your school!