January 30, 2003

Green Purchasing, Green Marketing

“Greening the Government through Waste Prevention, Recycling, and Federal Acquisitions” is the stated purpose of Executive Order 13101 creating the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive (OFEE). Under the current Director, John Howard, the mission of the OFEE has expanded to six priority areas: (1) waste prevention/recycling, (2) green purchasing, (3) environmental management systems, (4) electronics stewardship, (5) sustainable buildings, and (6) industrial ecology/green jobs.

On January 30, 2003, the Environmental Law Institute hosted an Associate seminar where panelists, Dana Arnold (Deputy Chief of Staff, White House Task Force on Waste Prevention and Recycling), Dobbins Callahan (General Manager, Government Markets of Tandus Group; Chair, Board of the National Recycling Coalition), and Lynn Bergeson (Bergeson & Campbell P.C.) discussed strategies for achieving these six priority areas. Special emphasize was paid to efforts aimed at expanding “biobased” products, developing new partnerships in the green buildings program, and implementing strategies for integrating more systematically EMSs. Panelists offered insights into the growing influence of federal purchasing policies in promoting market change.