Making it easier to buy environmentally friendly products

Summit, Mar 2001 by Sedkowski, Joanne

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) is a program of the US federal government's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is designed to promote and encourage federal government use of services and products that pose reduced impacts to human health and the environment. An online database is organized like a shopping mall with environmental information for selected products and services located within each store. The site also features guidelines and standards for "green" products as well as "green" purchasing. The EPP database includes: voluntary guidelines and standards used to compare the environmental preferability of products and services; contract language and specifications containing environmentally preferable purchasing language; and other sources of information about the environmental preferability of products and services.

Information within the database is specific to products developed by government programs, both domestic and international, as well as third parties. Users are encouraged to submit their own information so the database can be updated regularly. For more information visit www.epa.gov. -JS