Commission approves 2024 Buy Green report, cites high buy-green compliance but gaps on some electronics

The San Francisco Commission on the Environment voted Dec. 2 to approve the 2024 Buy Green annual report after a presentation from the Department of the Environment's toxics-reduction and procurement team.

Shoba Iyer (Toxics Reduction Environmental Specialist) told commissioners the city's environmentally preferable purchasing ordinance (Environment Code Chapter 2) and the Resource Conservation Ordinance guide municipal purchasing. Jerry Medina reported that nine city departments bought interior architectural paints through the cityand 85% of the purchases met the green-purchasing certification requirements, representing about $40,000 of $47,000 in spend. William Zenn reported a 98% compliance rate among city computers and monitors (about $3.9 million of $4.0 million spent) but noted a 17% compliance rate for televisions and large digital displays.

Zenn described the virtual warehouse program that redistributed 530 computers and monitors across departments in 2024, which the team estimates prevented roughly 100,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions. Staff said limitations in the city's procurement data systems and inconsistent product-category coding make tracking compliance resource intensive; the team plans more outreach, additional office hours for purchasers and collaboration with the Office of Contract Administration.

Commissioner Hunter moved to approve the report and Commissioner Ewan seconded. Roll call: Vice President Tompkins, Commissioner Bermejo, Commissioner Hunter and Commissioner Yuan voted Aye; the motion passed. Staff said the ordinance contains no monetary penalties for noncompliance and emphasized that the department will rely on education and contract-level requirements to increase compliance.