Sustainable Purchasing

Multnomah County is committed to responsible business practices by integrating sustainability considerations into the way it does business; including the goods and services it buys.

Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council
Multnomah County is a member of the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council that brings organizations together to improve environmental, social, and economic performance within their supply chains across the entirety of product and service life cycles.

Sustainability's Triple Bottom line: Environmental, Social Equity, and Economic Impacts.

Multnomah County is committed to responsible business practices by integrating sustainability into the way it does business; including the goods and services it buys. This website was created to share the tools and resources that guide the County's sustainable purchasing decisions. This site will be updated so please check back periodically.

CONTACT US

Shawn Postera, Sustainable Purchasing Coordinator

View the Sustainable Purchasing and Social Equity policy here:

A little history: Sustainable Purchasing Policy Overview

In 2010, Multnomah County adopted a Sustainable Purchasing and Social Equity Policy in order to use its purchasing power to reflect the values of our community. The policy provides a critical framework for staff to make buying decisions. As a result of our policy, Multnomah County requires all purchases above $25,000 to integrate  social equity, environmental, and prosperous considerations into an open and fair procurement process for the purchases of services and goods.

For purchases that have an evaluation component, the policy requires that 25% of the total evaluation points must be allocated to the triple bottom line of sustainability which is comprised of environmental considerations, social equity, and prosperity impacts through our value chain.  

Key Policy Innovations:

  1. Includes services and goods purchased above $25,000.
  2. Responsible Business Practices embedded into purchasing approval processes.
  3.  Imbedded into the procurement process is the empowerment for employees, community, potential suppliers, contracted suppliers, and other agencies to practice sustainability by providing tools and resources online that building capacity and are every growing as we work together being flexible and responsive in our ever changing world. 
  4. Mandatory allocation of 25% of proposal evaluation criteria for sustainability, social equity and prosperity throughout our value chain.
  5. For purchases $25,000 and above that do not include an evaluation component, sustainability attributes and considerations are integrated during the development of specifications.

Ever been curious about how sustainability initiatives evolved in Multnomah County?

We invite you to take a walk down Multnomah County's Sustainability Memory Lane and view our Sustainability Milestone Timeline as well as the resolutions, strategy papers, and action plans that made it all happen.

Last reviewed August 8, 2024

Was this page helpful?

Select one