State Agencies "Buy Green"

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By Alden Downing

Story Published: Apr 6, 2008 at 6:29 PM MST

Story Updated: Apr 6, 2008 at 6:29 PM MST

HELENA - State agencies are taking a step towards meeting Governor Brian Schweitzer's 20X10 Initiative, reducing energy use by 20% by the year 2010.

In January Schweitzer sent a memo to all state agencies outlining ways they can set the standard for energy reductions and use of green products. Now department reps are learning about ways they can buy green without spending a lot of the green.

"Make those choices," Sheryl Olson, Deputy Director of the Department of Administration, told agency reps. "At some point you may not be able to buy all green products, you can't afford that because you have to live within your budget. But if you can make the choice, if it's equal to or certainly less than, we encourage you to go that way."

The state's office supply contractor has a lot available in the way of environmentally friendly products. In fact, 700 of the 3,000 green products cost less than their non-green counterpart. Items range from basic recycled paper and bathroom products to recycled ink cartridges and pens.

"There's the difference between virgin paper and recycled paper, but there's also things that you can buy plastic parts, plastic products that have a certain percentage of recycled plastic inside of them." It goes beyond items from the online office supply store.

The Department of Administration is taking a closer look at the overall energy consumption of state agencies. "We're conducting energy audits and looking at how we can increase the energy efficiency of our buildings and also not only retrofitting our buildings but also if we have to do new things, if we have to build new buildings, what can we do to increase the energy efficiency of those?"

For some state agencies it goes beyond energy consumption and buying green in the office. The Department of Transportation is revamping the state's motorpool fleet, purchasing vehicles that get 30 miles to the gallon or better.

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speakforthose said on Friday, Apr 11 at 8:13 AM

The real elephant in the room in terms of efficiency is the awful way we make electricity. We throw 2/3 of the heat away! We need to be using energy recycling -- combined heat & power, waste heat recovery, etc. -- to save money, and cut emissions to boot.

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