Educational Procurement Journal - March 2008 - (Page 18) ROAMIN’ WI T H Y E O MAN Raging Inexorable Thunderlizard for Change Are you an Overlooked Strategic Partner? S by Brian Yeoman NAEP ustainability is likely the single most strategic initiative you will address in your Purchasing career. Is your campus embracing sustainability? If so, is your department a critical player? Instead of looking far and wide for an organizational home to begin the process, your campus could look to Purchasing, assuming it is – and assuming you are – ready. Your campus probably hasn’t given this much consideration, because Purchasing is one of those drab operational departments. This is not atypical, but it will continue unless you take the lead. This column offers the logic, rationale, and compelling reasons for you to deploy your considerable skills. There is no doubt that sustainability is a hot topic on campus. It is an issue front and center with students. They are looking closely at the actions of their alma mater– walking the walk or simply talking the talk? Being the role model is important because higher education plays a major role in the formulation of sustainability theory. Our students carry it forward into industry and government. Due to the immensity of its economic impact, higher education plays a huge role in sustainability at the local, regional, and national levels. What’s Happening at Your Campus? The stronger leaders argue that this is the strategic imperative of the decade and on into the future. In answer, they’ve initiated a wide range of academic enterprises – from creating interdisciplinary centers to rewriting curricula that emphasize integrating sustainability science into higher education’s very fabric, to creating entire new colleges. What is Your Campus Doing? Sustainability teaches us to think globally but act locally. In the end, it is local. Whether small or nothing at all, what folks do on your campus influences current and future leaders. The art of leadership will be to choose the course that does this favorably. The issue is not going away. It is becoming dominated by students, with the potential to be as big as the social consciousness and civil rights movements of the ’60s and ’70s. This is where the drab Purchasing department can jump start things. It touches 13 percent to 18 percent of the dollars expended annually by many institutions. The only thing bigger is payroll. Purchasing can assist in shaping a response consistent with what senior institutional leadership wants from the sustainability initiative. Purchasing is a critical leverage point, demonstrating that the university “gets it” and is doing something about it. Here’s why: It defines the spending process; It determines the participants; It is the interface to the community; It deals in fairness, facts, and well-defined specifications; It faces no competing theory; It thinks in terms of cost/benefit; It is future-oriented. Purchasing can lead because it governs the vendor-selection process. It can affect behavior by defining the economic impact of a sustainable campus. It can assist senior institutional leadership with the institution’s associations and expectations. For example, your campus spends money to control pests. Your current contract enables this but is silent on methods. By specifying integrated pest management and the use of nonpesticides, you can help your institution make a clear statement. The thousands of dollars you spend on this one contract each year can be redirected to a more environmentally responsive vendor pool. The institution benefits by knowing that the campus is a much healthier place. Students, faculty, and staff will appreciate not being exposed to the endocrine disruption that is correlated to long-term pesticide exposure. Be prepared to provide your institutional leadership options demonstrating your attention to the sustainability initiative. A component validating the underlying research is highly recommended. As Purchasing continues to be a key player in revenue enhancement (e.g., pouring rights, naming opportunities, Procard rebates, travel, information, technology, licenses), each contract will have a sustainability opportunity. Your efforts can demonstrate to leadership the values important to a solid campus initiative. This is possible because you deliver personal, welcoming, quality attention to the community through positive vendor relations. You become a preeminent face for your institution. The community connections provide a tremendous opportunity for classroom instruction in sustainability, for outreach, and for civic engagement. You can be the one to showcase the institution’s culture of leadership and volunteerism, and you will help create the seeds of success in your strategic sourcing accomplishments. It will be an investment with a great ROI for the entire campus. Acting in full partnership with institutional leadership, environmentally responsible Purchasing under your guidance will add value to the sustainability efforts taking place on your campus. You, too, can do great things in advancing the initiative in higher education. Brian K. Yeoman, Director of Education and Development at NAEP, is the retired associate vice president for Facilities Planning and Campus Development at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. e-Mail: byeoman@naepnet.org 18 EDUCATIONAL PROCUREMENT JOURNAL March 2008
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