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Our Mission

The Purchasing division provides City departments with a centralized source for pricing, quotes, order placement, vendor contracts and general problem solving.

Orders under $5,000 can be issued by City departments using mini orders, and Purchasing handles anything over $5,000. All orders over $60,000 must be competitively bid.

Our Vision

The City of Fort Collins is a recognized leader in the sustainable purchasing arena. Sustainable purchasing takes into account the triple bottom line of environmental, social and economic aspects. Sustainable purchasing also recognizes the product life cycle of acquisition, utilization and disposal. Safety is a recognizable element in environmental and social segments of the criteria.

Contact Ed Bonnette at ebonnette@fcgov.com, with any input concerning this site.

What is Sustainable Purchasing?

Sustainable Purchasing is a process for selecting products or services that have a lesser or reduced negative effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing products or services that serve the same purpose.

This process is also known as "Environmentally Preferable Purchasing" (EPP), or "Green Purchasing".

What is the Triple Bottom Line?

The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) is an accounting framework that incorporates three dimensions of performance: economic, or financial; environmental, and social. The generally accepted definition of Andrew Savitz for TBL is that it "captures the essence of sustainability by measuring the impact of an organization's activities on the world...including both its profitability and shareholders values and its social, human, and environmental capital."

What should be considered when purchasing a product?

  • Environment + Price + Performance = Environmentally Preferred Purchasing (EPP) or Sustainable Purchasing
    Include environmental and social considerations as part of the normal purchasing process.
  • Pollution Prevention
    Emphasize pollution prevention as part of the purchasing process.
  • Life Cycle Perspective/Multiple Attributes
    Examine multiple environmental attributes throughout the product and service's life cycle.
  • Comparison of Environmental Impacts
    Compare environmental impacts when selecting products and services.
  • Environmental Performance Information
    Collect accurate and meaningful environmental information about environmental performance of products and services

Before purchasing any product it is always a good idea to ask the following questions. You might be surprised where the answers lead you.

  1. Why do I want this?
  2. How will I use it?
  3. Where did it come from?
  4. What are my alternatives?
  5. Can I get along without it?

This quick assessment will help drive responsible purchasing decisions and save the City  money by preventing the purchase of unneeded items.

Purchasing Guide

The City of Fort Collins Purchasing division has created a Green or Sustainable Purchase Criteria Checklist in order to help guide City departments in determining what the City defines as "sustainable purchases". This list is by no means meant to be all-inclusive; rather, it is meant to be a starting point we are using as our baseline going forward.

Also attached is a list of Sustainable Certifications to help our City departments define the type of products that will help us achieve our triple bottom line objectives.

Green Seal Website:

This website lists some pre-approved products that have been researched and shown to be environmentally friendly. All products on this website have been certified by Green-seal after being evaluated.

www.greenseal.org