Employee Surveys
In April 2009, as Multnomah County was developing its Sustainable Purchasing policy, the development team conducted a survey of employees relating to sustainable purchasing. The purpose of this survey was to communicated with employees about the policy development efforts, find out how much employees knew about the topic, identify any barriers to sustainable purchasing that may exist, and establish what types of resources would be needed to help staff make a sustainable purchasing decision. A follow up survey was conducted in November 2010, four months after the adoption of the Sustainable Purchasing Policy.
View the Employee survey questions here Employee Survey Questions (109.05 KB).
Barriers
Price (66%), performance (60%), and lack of information about what makes a product sustainable (54%) were the identified as the most significant barriers in the first survey. In the second survey, price dropped from the top spot, coming in second with 58%. Lack of product information was the top barrier in the second survey. I would expect that lack of product information would be less of a barrier from December to July, during which time there was significant outreach, education, and support provided to departments by the dedicated sustainable purchasing coordinator.
Encouragingly, there appears to be a reduction in concern over the performance of sustainable alternatives, with a drop from 60% to 33% of respondents identifying it as a barrier.
Interestingly, since the adoption of the policy, time pressure as a barrier increased from 4% in the first survey to 26% in the second survey. One would expect that time pressure would decrease from December 2010 through July 2011 when support from the Sustainable Purchasing Coordinator was in place.
In the first survey 24% of respondents answered that they perceived no barriers, however on the second survey, which dropped to 4%. This would seem to indicate that since the policy has been in place, employees are experiencing barriers they had not thought existed previously.
Ecolabels
General awareness of ecolabels and third party certifications has increased since the first survey was conducted; awareness of Green Seal, Greenguard, FSC and LEED has increased by about 20%.
Resources
Tip sheets as resources scored high in both surveys, as did workshops. Providing language for procurements scored fairly low in both surveys, however, this may be because most employees responding would not be responsible for developing language for procurements. As a result, since the second survey was conducted, we have created a number of web-based resources and conducted several workshops and training sessions for employees.
Conclusion
Multnomah County employees have an increased awareness of sustainable purchasing concepts and tools since the first survey was conducted. Attitudes and perceptions regarding barriers have shifted and it would be interesting to follow up since December 2010, when a dedicated sustainable purchasing coordinator was able to come on board. Feedback from meetings and trainings indicate that there has indeed been a significant attitude shift among some employees, which is very encouraging and is indeed one of the overarching goals of the program.
Vendor Survey
In July 2010, Multnomah County conducted a survey of our business partners to know what they think about sustainability, sustainable purchasing, and what resources they need to help them be greener. Their responses have helped us to develop resources that we hope will help them meet our sustainability goals, and to become better businesses.
View the Vendor survey questions here Vendor Survey Questions (90.74 KB)
What we heard from them
Barriers to introducing sustainable practices into their business:
- 86 percent of those surveyed indicated that lack of knowledge/training on sustainability was a barrier
- 67% percent of those surveyed indicated that lack of resources is a barrier
They are doing a lot already!
- Duplexing (double sided printing)
- Energy conservation practices
- Recycling
- Green cleaning
- Sustainable purchasing
What vendors wanted from us:
Most of the vendors would like to receive information from Multnomah County via email, US Mail and web-based formats.
What we are doing in response:
We have created resources and tools to help vendors find assistance and learn more about sustainability:
- Created a webpage for vendor information /purchasing/vendors
- Publications and training
- Sustainable Purchasing & Social Equity Resources for Businesses brochure (PDF)
- Sustainable Purchasing & Social Equity Policy Guidelines for vendors (PDF)
- Online training module (in development)
- Tools and resources for greening businesses: links to organizations and green business information, sustainability calculators, sustainability best practices, and ecolabel information.
Where we are going:
We are exploring the opportunity to offer training sessions to vendors and we will be adding to our online resources.