Relevant WEB SITES

Yale LINKS

Yale Recycling Here you'll find information on Yale's recycling programs, what you can recycle, and other fun facts and recycling related information.

Yale OEHS (Office of Environmental Health and Safety). Here you'll find a multitude of information on environmental health and safety at Yale from MSDS to safety manuals to trainings on how to deal with hazardous waste.

Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. See what the students and faculty at the Nation's leading School of the Environment are up to.

Yale Office of Sustainability – This important office was created to generate increased momentum and facilitate the process of developing and implementing best sustainability practices at Yale.  Bob Ferretti oversees the Office’s outreach and education efforts, and is working closely with the Procurement Department on greening Yale’s purchases.  If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact him at Robert.ferretti@yale.edu or (203) 432 – 1446.

PRODuct rating and certification systems

ENERGY STAR is a government program that offers businesses and consumers energy-efficient solutions, making it easy to save money while protecting the environment for future generations. Check out the website for all of the Energy Star certified products.

EPEAT is a system to help purchasers in the public and private sectors evaluate, compare and select desktop computers, notebooks and monitors based on their environmental attributes. EPEAT also provides a clear and consistent set of performance criteria for the design of products, and provides an opportunity for manufacturers to secure market recognition for efforts to reduce the environmental impact of its products.

Green Seal Green Seal is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to safeguarding the environment and transforming the marketplace by promoting the manufacture, purchase, and use of environmentally responsible products and services. Click here for more information about Green Seal

Cradle to cradle – Cradle to Cradle Certification provides a company with a means to tangibly, credibly measure achievement in environmentally-intelligent design and helps customers purchase and specify products that are pursuing a broader definition of quality. This means using environmentally safe and healthy materials; design for material reutilization, such as recycling or composting; the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency; efficient use of water, and maximum water quality associated with production; and instituting strategies for social responsibility. If a candidate product achieves the necessary criteria, it is certified as a Silver, Gold or Platinum product or as a Technical/Biological Nutrient (available for homogeneous materials or less complex products), and can be branded as Cradle to Cradle.

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) - is a non-profit organization devoted to encouraging the responsible management of the world’s forests. FSC sets high standards that ensure forestry is practiced in an environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable way.

Greenguard – An industry independent, third-party testing program for low-emitting products and materials – created certification standards for low-emitting products for the indoor environment

LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - A green building rating system, developed by the US Green Building Council, providing a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable building construction.

Environmental Choice – home of ECOLOGO - EcoLogoM is North America's most widely recognized and respected multi-attribute environmental certification mark, courtesy of the Canadian government.

useful resources

The Center for a New American Dream helps Americans consume responsibly to protect the environment, enhance quality of life, and promote social justice. Visit their Institutional Purchasing page.

California’s EPP Best Practices Manual.  This site is an incredible resource – most of what went into this guide was adapted from there.  If you only take a look at one site in this resource list, let it be this one.

AASHE, Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, has great information available to anyone with an @yale.edu email address.  It is full of resources and news about what universities are doing regarding sustainability – including green purchasing. 

EPA’s Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Website: a very useful resource – contains many links to info on many green products and services, as well as tips and tools, including the EPA EPP training tool below.

EPA EPP training tool: - this is a great quick online training in which you can go at your own pace.  It covers basic EPP principles, along with some more in-depth applications of EPP, in an entertaining multimedia format.

EPA’s Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines. The Comprehensive Procurement Guideline (CPG) program is part of EPA's continuing effort to promote the use of materials recovered from solid waste. Buying recycled-content products ensures that the materials collected in recycling programs will be used again in the manufacture of new products.

National Association of Educational Procurement has a focus on sustainability – check out their webpage for events and current information regarding sustainable procurement.