University of Pennsylvania
OP-11: Sustainable Procurement

Contract language - "Commitment to Environmental Sustainability: As a signatory of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, the University is committed to environmental stewardship. The Supplier agrees to use its best efforts to support the University's environmental sustainability efforts and promote sustainable business practices within its own organization. The University may from time to time request information from the Supplier to ensure that it is demonstrating commitment to environmental sustainability. Supplier agrees to provide information as requested, In addition, Supplier will consider any commercially reasonable requests that the University puts forth to promote environmentally sustainable business practices. The Supplier’s response to these requests may inform the University’s decision when purchasing those goods or services in the future."

https://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/purchasing/sustainable-purchasing.html

A LCCA is incorporated into the design guidelines for Penn's capital projects. The guidelines address the LCCA for electric and mechanical systems and are organized as follows:
a. Code impact,
b. operating costs, including: housekeeping, landscaping, and utility costs. The operating cost analysis must be comprehensive as it will be used to predict utility and maintenance budgets.
c. Maintenance costs
d. Construction costs
e. System life expectancy
f. Rationale for zoning
g. Life Cycle Costs – to include all owning and operating center over a 25 year period. Use standard spreadsheet (available electronically) attached to summarize life cycle costs for each option.
h. Impact upon existing utility infrastructures

Penn's Office of Environmental Health and Radiation Services publishes criteria and guidelines for hazardous materials and biological safety, including extensive lists for reporting, handling, and transporting/shipping hazardous materials.
Penn's Housekeeping Services provides annual training for housekeepers regarding handling and use of chemically intensive products, and the Urban Parks services team conducts similar training for hazardous materials used in small, select areas for landscape and grounds maintenance.
Penn's "Green Guidelines for Renovations" features a section on the design of interior surfaces, requiring renovation projects to use interior surfaces that can be routinely cleaned using standard, low-toxicity and low-irritant products that meet a number of nationally-recognized emissions and toxicity standards, such as "GreenSeal" and "Environmental Choice" products. These standards apply to all buildings to ensure the quality and consistency of materials and cleaning protocols across the campus. The Guidelines also address indoor air quality by specifying that materials used on interior finishes meet the standards of a number of different, nationally recognized air quality standards. Any new construction and major renovation projects must, at a minimum, meet LEED Silver certification.

See the below websites for more information:
https://ehrs.upenn.edu/health-safety/biosafety/biological-safety-manual
https://www.facilities.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/Green%20Guidelines%20for%20Renovations%20October%202015.pdf

Penn encourages members of the Penn community to utilize the advanced search tool in Penn Marketplace to identify and prefer more sustainable products such as recycled content, biobased, and eco-friendly products. More sustainable products are labeled in Penn Marketplace with a green leaf feature for ease of recognition. Information about this program can be found on the Penn Procurement website here at https://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/purchasing/sustainable-purchasing/how-to-buy-green.html.

Members of the Penn Community seeking to significantly reduce their office printing costs and environmental impact can take advantage of Penn’s Managed Print Services (MPS). The MPS Program is a service that analyzes and manages document input/output devices to: improve efficiency and productivity; reduce electronic, paper, and plastic (ink/toner) waste; lower the total cost of office printing; reduce support burden to IT staff; and manage the printer fleet with greater visibility.

Penn's "Green Guidelines for Renovations" features a section on Furnishings, requiring BIFMA level(R) Certification, PVC Free, and indoor air quality requirements for applicable products. These standards apply to renovations across campus that are not required to achieve LEED certification. (https://www.facilities.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/Green%20Guidelines%20for%20Renovations%20October%202015.pdf) Any new construction and major renovation projects must, at a minimum, meet LEED Silver certification.

The University is committed to purchasing Energy Star qualified products such as printers, computers, and appliances. Penn Computing Green Information Technology (IT) program has established recommended guidelines for IT purchases that include Energy Star 5.0 compliant desktops, replacing CRT monitors with LCD monitors, and encouraging the purchase of small form factor or all-in-one desktops instead of mini-towers or towers.

Beyond its purchasing guidelines, Green IT provides resources to help users throughout the University improve the sustainable aspects of their computing operations by reducing energy consumption and producing less e-waste.

Other examples of Green IT Hardware and Peripherals on campus is the Managed Print Services (MPS). MPS is a service provided by an external provider to analyze and manage document output devices with the goal of reducing the total cost of ownership and improving internal efficiency and productivity. DocuSense, Ricoh, ADS-S and Parmetech are Penn’s preferred MPS providers under multi‐year, campus‐wide contracts.
The Penn MPS program includes printer/copier equipment, service, and supplies, with some or all of the following provisions:
• Equipment including multi-functional devices (MFD), copiers, printers, scanners and fax machines
• Preventive maintenance, parts, and ink/toner supplies (excluding paper)
• Guaranteed service level response times with near or on‐campus support, break/fix, and supplies replenishment
• Detailed account usage and simplified billing utilizing a cost per impression model
• Flexibility for equipment changes; up‐scaling and down‐scaling as your business needs dictate
• Single contract for increased efficiency in managing contract terms and conditions

Through MPS, an office establishes a common network with print devices optimized to accommodate printing needs while reducing the number of individual printers. This allows for a reduction in the energy used for printing across the office while maintaining a high level of service. It also allows user to deleted unwanted jobs from the printing queue, eliminating unnecessary printing.

In addition to these services, Penn has a published statement on conflict minerals related to IT. Major contracted suppliers of electronics to the University belong to the Electronic Industry Citizen Coalition (EICC) an organization devoted to improving social and environmental conditions in electronics supply chains. The EICC requires its members to follow a Code of Conduct which provides guidance in five critical areas of Corporate Social Responsibility performance – labor, health and safety, environment, management system and ethics.

As the EICC Code of Conduct does not yet specifically address the issue of conflict minerals, Penn has reached out to its major electronics suppliers to express concern about this issue and to request information about their efforts to ensure that the components they purchase throughout their supply chain are conflict free.

Penn is aware that there have been recent legislative and industry wide efforts to address the issue of conflict minerals. This includes the launch by the EICC in partnership with Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) of their Conflict-Free Smelter (CFS) program and the completion of the first tantalum smelter assessment.

Penn’s major contract suppliers, through their participation with the EICC have indicated their interest in addressing the issue of conflict minerals and as these initiatives move forward, Penn is committed to supporting and encouraging efforts by the EICC and others to deal with this complex issue. Links to the statement, EICC, and major contractor supplier links can be found here: https://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/purchasing/sustainable-purchasing/minimizing-supply-shain-conflict.html

More information can be found on the purchasing webpage: https://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/purchasing/sustainable-purchasing/green-products-and-services/green-info-by-category.html

Additional information can be found here: https://www.sustainability.upenn.edu/initiatives/purchasing-practices and at
https://www.isc.upenn.edu/how-to/desktop-computing-recommendations-penn-2017-2018#Additional-information under "Improving Sustainability"

Penn Purchasing has developed catering guidelines and contracts. Cafes on campus are governed by contracts which include sustainability, most notably Joes Cafe. As part of sustainability criteria, compost, recycling, food purchases, signage for cafe users, training and education for staff, educational events, and many more were included. In addition, Joe's Cafe earned a LEED Innovation in Design credit for Sustainable Cafe Operations. An excerpt from the contract and the LEED submission is included at the end of this submission. The full contract is not available for public dissemination.

As part of the consideration criteria for the campus dining vendor, Penn evaluated the sustainability of the vendors. Bon Appetit Management Company's wide range of sustainable practices was part of the decision making process in the Penn's selection.

As part of Penn's requirements for apparel licensees, Penn requires all licensees that sourced, produced or purchased collegiate apparel in Bangladesh to become signatories of The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and abide by its requirements as soon as possible. This Accord establishes a fire and building safety program by which manufacturers and retailers must abide to improve working conditions.

As part of the license issuance and renewal processes, Penn will verify whether apparel licensees source, produce or purchase collegiate apparel in Bangladesh and will ensure that they are signatories of the Accord prior to granting or renewing a license.

As a result of the well-documented safety hazards affecting the lives of collegiate apparel workers in Bangladesh, the Worker's Rights Consortium (WRC), one of Penn’s monitoring agencies, encouraged colleges and universities to require their apparel licensees to sign the Accord. Penn administration relies on its Committee for Manufacturer Responsibility, which is comprised of representatives from Penn’s faculty, students, staff and administrative leadership, to actively evaluate and monitor the labor activities and socially responsible practices of University licensees. The Committee, under the auspices of its faculty chair, makes recommendations to the University administration regarding its findings. The Committee unanimously voted to approve a resolution that encouraged the University to make this decision. For more information, see: https://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/purchasing/sustainable-purchasing/minimizing-supply-shain-conflict/apparel-licensee-requirements.html

In addition, as part of the laundry services assessment, Penn evaluated sustainability in the decision making process. "Wash-Cycle-Laundry's" triple-bottom line practices was part of the decision making process.

Sustainability is incorporated into "Instructions to Design Professionals" and the "Design Guidelines". These documents are incorporated by reference in all RFPs and contracts with design professionals. Within the "Instructions to Design Professionals" the University states it's sustainability policy. The documents can be found here: https://www.facilities.upenn.edu/standards-policies/standards/design-guidelines

In addition to the "Instructions to Design Professionals", Penn Purchasing Services has worked to bring inclusiveness to Penn's supply chain. Purchasing Services' Economic Inclusion efforts focus on two categories of suppliers:

Local Suppliers - those suppliers with locations in West Philadelphia as well as those within the broader City of Philadelphia
Diversity Suppliers - those suppliers that are minority-owned, woman-owned, or hold other diversity classifications (e.g. Protected Veteran, LGBTQ)
Its approach to economic inclusion is centered around certain key elements:

- Community Engagement – participating regularly in events and forums to ensure close connection with the community and the supply base
- Partnerships – collaborating with internal and external partners to mutually advance inclusion efforts
- Active Supplier Promotion – managing systems and programs to actively promote local and diversity suppliers
- Goal-setting, Measuring and Reporting – setting economic inclusion goals, measuring performance, and reporting performance to leadership and the community

By specifically targeting local suppliers and including a preference for local vendors in contracts, Penn has been able to reduce the delivery and travel distance of goods and services. This preference is included in requests for proposals issued by the University. Full contracts and RFPs cannot be posted; however, as part of the criteria for evaluation, contracts can include: "Support of WBE/MBE and West Philadelphia-based business enterprises."

More information on this and a list of some of Penn's local and diversity suppliers can be found here: https://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/purchasing/economic-inclusion.html

As a focus of Penn Transit Services (a department within Penn's Business Services Division), a Sustainable Transportation initiative was launched to help reduce vehicle emissions across campus. Penn Transit Services provides information about alternative forms of transportation and facilitating access to a variety of more sustainable commuting options. In an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and meet the goals of the "Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 3.0", new passenger shuttle vans running on liquid propane have been added to the fleet, buses run on ultra-low sulfur diesel or bio-diesel, and car-sharing and van-sharing platforms have been added to campus commuting options. In addition, electric charging stations have been installed in some garages and benefits are offered to drivers of low-emission vehicles.

In addition to changes made to Penn Transportation's fleet, Penn negotiated changes to the city district steam supplier's steam production. Due to this negotiation, the steam supplier installed natural gas, rapid fire boilers and a cogen plant. These changes have reduced both Penn's greenhouse gas emissions and the regions emissions.

In an effort to reduce the impact of transporting goods long distances and to align with the Penn Compact 2020, Penn Purchasing Services has worked to bring inclusiveness to Penn's supply chain though two categories:
- Local Suppliers - those suppliers with locations in West Philadelphia as well as those within the broader City of Philadelphia
- Diversity Suppliers - those suppliers that are minority-owned, woman-owned, or hold other diversity classifications (e.g. Protected Veteran, LGBTQ)

By specifically targeting local suppliers and including a preference for local vendors in contracts, Penn has been able to reduce the delivery and travel distance of goods and services. This preference is included in requests for proposals issued by the University.

The University of Pennsylvania is a major research institution, with over 3,000 degrees granted annually from twelve professional and academic schools at the Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate levels. Penn is committed to reducing emissions and energy use, as stated in the 2019 "Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 3.0". This submission documents Penn's efforts during the FY20 year and compares them to the FY09 baseline year which corresponds with the University's "Climate and Sustainability Action Plan. 3.0". The submission relies on information related to the main, academic, West Philadelphia campus, but to more fully document efforts across the Penn system, information related to the Morris Arboretum and New Bolton has also been referenced and noted as outside the boundary in descriptions. The information is used to enrich examples of University efforts and is not intended to be the primary justification for credits. The responses for each of the questions and sub-questions are drawn from University materials, both internal and public documents. Each section notes the website where the information can be found.