Purchasing Solution

You will need to determine how the GSA Purchasing Solution aligns with the purchasing officials’ and school priorities. For instance, if saving money is the highest priority, you’ll need to put in the forefront the Purchasing Solution’s ability to garner savings - the focus on quality and ease may be less enticing. Also, you might consider how purchasing with the GSA Purchasing Solution can support your school-wide initiatives, goals, mission or vision.

It will be most helpful to have the answers to the following questions so you know the context within which you are working as you advocate for using the GSA Purchasing Solution. Here are suggested Discovery Questions to guide your analysis:

• Who has purchasing authority in your school? Can you identify purchasing allies who can help you to implement change?

• Is purchasing centralized (i.e., done by a central office) or decentralized (done by each school)? What is the preference of staff, and are there desires to change or streamline your current system?

• What is the annual cycle of procurement? How are budgets distributed?

• Does your school have an approved vendor list from which purchases must be made?

• What vendors does your school currently work with, and have contracts with?

• Are there specific products that your school would like to purchase?

• Consider ranking the important criteria that are used to make purchasing decisions for your school:

  • Cost

  • Supplier / Sourcing (preferred types of vendors)

  • Quality

  • Sustainability (if different than quality)

  • Vendor Relationship

  • Delivery (reliability, relationships, dependability)

- Have the initial discovery conversation about procurement.

The goal of the conversation is not necessarily to convince purchasing officials to use the GSA Purchasing Solution just yet - it’s to understand their priorities and what is possible in the current procurement framework. Knowing their priorities is critical for how you will next present the GSA Purchasing Solution to fit their identified needs.

Here is a suggested flow for your initial conversation:

• Use the Discovery Questions above to gather details.

• Share the GSA Purchasing Solution Summary, Flyer, and/or FAQs with them.

• Capture what questions your official has so you can find the answers.

• Request a list of currently procured items and/or a wish list of new items so that the GSA Purchasing Solution can run a free price analysis.

• Close by saying that you will follow up with a proposal on how the GSA Purchasing Solution could specifically support your school.

A note about systems and policy change:

Sustainability Coordinators are often people looking at the macro-level picture. That’s fantastic! However, at the outset especially, it is helpful to start with small steps - especially when trying to educate others about the value of using the GSA Purchasing Solution. Plans for systemic change - that can include centralized purchasing, policy changes, or using more sustainable products - may be overwhelming at the outset. Start with small steps, find your purchasing allies, and work up to the larger macro-level change. We’ll be there to support you when the time comes!

At this point, you will hopefully have a lay-of-the-land of your purchasing situation. Now it’s time to put together hard information to make the case for transitioning your school to sustainable purchasing and/ or using the GSA Purchasing Solution.

1. Submit the list of items that you obtained from your purchasing official to Green Schools Alliance for analysis.

The magic of the GSA Purchasing Solution happens when we can review a significant amount of purchasing in order to create scenarios where currently purchased items are found at a less expensive price. Having a list of items can allow Green Schools Alliance to create scenarios that bundle purchases to get the best possible price.

Furthermore, this decrease in cost can then mitigate the purchase of desired, but previously too-expensive items, ultimately saving schools money. Note that when transitioning from less expensive to more expensive items, the cost may be cost neutral or better.

Here is what to include in the list of items to send:

• Product names

• Specifications

• Purchase history (quantity and current price)

• And list of any vendors on contract or regularly used

Once you have this list, send it to purchasing@greenschoolsalliance.org for analysis and new pricing estimates.

2. Schedule a follow-up conversation with your purchasing official to review the data.

Once you receive your analysis from Green Schools Alliance, talk to your purchasing official and decide which items you would like to purchase. Read the case study of one of our happy schools, the Princeton Day School.

Once you receive your analysis from Green Schools Alliance, decide which items you would like to purchase and a realistic timeframe.

Transitioning to using the GSA Purchasing Solutions has happened quickly for some schools, and over several months for others. Your patience and perseverance is needed to keep moving the process forward! Sometimes change takes time.

Recognize that the first purchases through the GSA Purchasing Solution may be for conventional products and services, and that is OK. We recognize that as a school Sustainability Champion, you’d like to make your school as sustainable as possible. However, the Purchasing Solution is designed so that even baby steps of purchasing conventional, already-used items at schools will lead to familiarity with the tool, which can then open the gates toward transitioning to sustainable options. If you can start with moving toward sustainable options at the outset, of course, that is wonderful.