Green Schools Initiative : Green Purchasing

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Green Purchasing

The majority of US schools expose students to pesticides, cleaners, and building materials that contain hazardous chemicals. These chemicals can pose serious risks to the health of students, teachers, and staff. Half of schools in the US have poor indoor air quality, according to the US EPA. Schools use tons and tons of paper and loads of energy, often with considerable waste of resources.

The Green Schools Buying Guide can help school administrators, teachers, parents, students, and school board members make their schools healthier and reduce their overall environmental impact. The Guide pulls together information from a variety of sources to serve as a starting point for helping people navigate information about environmentally preferable products, brands, and sources.

You can click on the "Find Green Products" button at left to peruse the Guide and start buying green. And take a look at the articles below for more green purchasing ideas.

Green Back-to-School Supplies

Your environmentally-friendly purchases for school can make a huge difference. Here's why:  14 billion pencils are produced every year, many made with wood from ancient forests. Americans use about 31.5 million tons of printing and writing paper each year, requiring 535 million trees (most from virgin tree fiber) and 12 billion gallons of oil to make.

Green Gift Ideas

Tips and links to simplify and green your gift giving

Green Schools Buying Guide

We've launched a new Green Schools Buying Guide to help schools make purchasing decisions that will protect children's health and the environment. Schools spend billions of dollars on facilities, energy and water, office and school supplies, cleaners and pesticides, food and play equipment. Why not leverage these funds to benefit our health and the environment? We can! Through Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) or Green Purchasing.

Watch Webinar: Green Purchasing for Schools Saves Money and Reduces Your Environmental Footprint

In this recorded webinar we will introduce you to the Green Schools Buying Guide and other resources. Leverage your school's buying power towards protecting people and the planet. Recorded on September 11, 2013.