On Sept. 5, 2025, the Planning, Energy and Environmental Quality Committee reviewed the 2024 annual report for the county’s Environmentally Preferable Products (EPP) program and heard examples of progress and remaining barriers to broader green purchasing.

Kat (Recycling/Materials Management) summarized program activity. The EPP team, created under county procurement policy 0607, includes representatives from administration, facilities, ITS, planning and sustainability, and purchasing. The team’s charge includes developing sustainable procurement tools, incorporating green specifications into bid language and submitting an annual report to the county administrator and legislature.

Key items presented in the annual report included: an ongoing surplus equipment and supplies program to reuse county property across departments; a Green Building Construction and Renovation policy adopted in 2024 that will influence future purchases for capital projects; and targeted progress on office supplies and cleaning products. Kat said roughly 26–27% of office supply purchases by dollar value in a recent year had at least one green attribute and that facilities’ cleaning purchases were nearly 100% green except for a handful of products without available alternatives.

On operations, staff said the county added seven electrified vehicles to the fleet and three grid‑independent charging stations, recycled almost 10,000 pounds of electronic equipment through an ITS contract, and tracked a water‑bottle refill station in the county building that the presenter said recorded almost 10,000 refills (presenter did not specify the exact timeframe for that total).

Drew (Finance) said the county is working with major suppliers — W.B. Mason, Staples and Amazon — to surface green products in staff procurement workflows and that his office has pushed green items to the top of internal search results for common purchases. Legislators suggested practical outreach ideas, including using leftover funds from the county’s reusable bag program to pilot distribution of reusable bottles for employees.

Presenters acknowledged challenges: decentralized purchasing across departments and limited staff capacity make it harder to ensure consistent green procurement across the county. The EPP team plans to pilot internal tracking tools and share resources and example specifications on the county intranet to help departmental staff identify green alternatives.

The committee did not vote on policy changes at the meeting but encouraged continuation of outreach and staff pilots and asked for follow‑up reporting on pilot outcomes and intranet resource improvements.