Lean manufacturing + Pollution prevention = green procurement.

Green purchasing is often referred to as environmentally preferable purchasing. It’s the selection and acquisition of products and services that minimize environmental impact throughout the course of the manufacturing, transportation, use, and recycling or disposal lifecycles.

Supply Management

As the core of the inbound supply chain, supply management plays a vital role in finding green opportunities. However, putting them in context can be difficult.

PLUS Sustainability

A good reference point for any organization is to first understand what elements fall under the sustainability umbrella. Here are some of the greatest opportunities with which supply management can help their companies:

• Switching from toxic to nontoxic substances
• Water reuse in manufacturing of supplied products
• Air emission and hazardous waste reductions
• Supplier energy efficiency

Lean + Pollution Prevention + Environmental Initiatives

The Green Supply Network (GSN)-a joint effort of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Commerce, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program-took the proven principles of lean and merged them with pollution prevention and the EPA’s environmental initiatives.

GSN’s marriage of clean initiatives to the principles of lean provided the following lessons learned:

• Optimizing material use for less scrap yields reduced solid waste.
• Reducing inventory for less chemical spoilage equates to reduced hazardous waste.
• Reducing overproduction means less run time and an energy savings.
• Less transportation means a reduction in fuel consumption, which reduces air emissions.

Read more about GREEN PROCUREMENT and SUPPLY CHAINS