Lake County officials on July 31 discussed a proposed environmentally preferred purchasing policy that would direct county procurement to favor qualified green vendors in competitive purchases when their bids are within 5% of the lowest responsible bidder. After extensive committee debate and public and staff input, members voted to postpone consideration until the September Financial and Administrative Committee cycle to allow further analysis and clarifications.

What the policy would do
County sustainability staff described a program that would apply to public procurements and include training, purchasing guides and an ecolabel certification form vendors could use to show compliance with third‑party ecolabels. Under the proposed approach, when a qualified vendor meets procurement specifications or holds a recognized ecolabel and is within 5% of the lowest responsive bid, the county could award to that environmentally preferable bidder. The policy would also include reporting metrics (training delivered, spend directed to certified vendors, category analysis) and a target implementation date of calendar year 2026.

Why it matters
Committee members welcomed the goal of aligning purchasing with the county’s environmental strategic priorities but raised several concerns. Member questions included how much of county purchasing falls under competitive thresholds (staff said approximately 20% of contracts by value are above the public procurement threshold and that about 80% of purchases are below $30,000), whether the policy would disadvantage small vendors that cannot afford ecolabels, and how fiscal impacts should be capped or budgeted.

Public and committee concerns
Committee member Behn warned that certification costs could exclude smaller local vendors who otherwise meet the county’s environmental goals. Member Clark and others suggested a phased approach or focusing initial efforts on a few priority categories. Member Parker and others said the county should “get something going” and iterate. Health Department leadership opted out of adopting the policy at this stage, staff said.

Action taken
The committee voted to postpone the item to the September Financial and Administrative Committee meeting for further analysis, including market-competition review, clarification about whether multiple green vendors must be in the bidder pool to trigger the preference, and development of fiscal guardrails.

What's next
Staff said they will refine the policy language, provide additional fiscal analysis and market research, and return with an updated draft in the September committee cycle. If the policy is approved, implementation would include staff training, purchasing guides and ERP-enabled tracking of supplier sustainability data.