As the COVID-19 closures battered businesses nationwide, Shawn Postera in Central Purchasing quietly helped departments contract with small, local minority, women, veteran, and LGBTQ-owned businesses to supply everything from meals to masks.
Postera, the Sustainable Purchasing Coordinator, regularly asks the questions that allow her to be flexible and integrate the County’s values into its purchasing decisions — from finding local suppliers to tapping certified eco firms and those that better meet the County’s equity and climate goals.
She’s worked with Amazon, Staples, and Granger to include local sources selling healthier and more sustainable products in their government catalogs. And she’s helped the County’s community-based partners research and access suppliers that, for instance, leave a smaller carbon footprint or don’t use forced labor.
Now Postera’s efforts as an individual — and the Purchasing team’s work overall — have garnered two national awards. On April 14, the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council will present Postera with an Individual Leadership Award. The Council has also named Multnomah County one of the top five governments in the country for sustainable procurement. That award will be presented to the Purchasing Manager Brian Smith, who has helped the County’s policy become a national model over the past 15 years.
“How you make a purchase matters, and Brian and the whole purchasing team have not just said sustainability and equity are important, they’ve developed policy to make implementation happen,” said Chief Financial Officer Eric Arellano.
Although Smith leads a team of 22, up to 80 County employees purchase goods and services for their departments, and up to 250 staff work on contracts.
Under the County’s “PUR-8: Sustainable, Responsible and Equitable Business Procurement Practices” Administrative Procedure, those employees are directed to incorporate the “triple bottom line” of sustainability in their respective department’s business practices to ensure they consider the environment, equity, and economic impacts in the purchasing decisions of goods and services.
One of the most obvious examples of the policy is that 25% of the evaluation points for requests for proposals are for sustainability criteria. The County’s Equity and Empowerment Lens is a foundational tool to ensure the appropriate impacts are incorporated into each procurement, and the Multco Marketplace — the County’s online purchasing site — offers a resource and lesson library resources, too.
“The key is to go beyond policy, to infuse it in operations,” Smith said. “A piece of that is making sure when we go out with procurements and write contracts, those standards and values are reflected. It’s also program-level staff who are thinking about how we negotiate and manage contracts; it goes well beyond the procurement.”
“County staff bring the organization’s values to life,” said John Wasiutynski, the County’s Sustainability Director. “Shawn, Brian, and the rest of the County’s procurement staff are bringing the value of sustainability to life by leveraging our purchasing power to make healthier decisions for our employees and clients, and are also helping to shape markets to offer better alternatives, promote local economic development, and bring a better future into being.”
Postera said using a “values chain” in the supply chain better supports the well-being of people and the planet. Facilities, for instance, follow guidance from the Center for Environmental Health to buy greener cleaners and healthier carpet and paint. The Department of Community Justices’ Courtyard Cafe buys non-toxic utensils. The team is constantly looking at tough on-the-ground challenges to improve.
“Like how do we provide water to houseless individuals knowing plastic water bottles are terrible for the environment?” Postera said. “Or how to streamline the County’s own Amazon deliveries to reduce traffic and improve air quality?”
Postera said finding such solutions may take longer, but can also have more far-reaching results.
“Investing in community saves you money in the long run because the local community gets dollars,” she said. “Say we want to hire an integrated pest management company. If the service is local and effective, that is helping a whole group of people working there to be sustainable and thrive.
“They’re not needing services — they’re working and thriving.”
