I am trying to find a "down to earth" explanation for environmental aspects related to purchasing - e.g.: determining what environmental aspects could face an organization after a purchased product / service enters the organization..... or something like that. Any idea??

Any idea??

Yep...It purley depends upon the product...copy paper can effect the environment differently than oil and oilcan effect the environment differently than sulfuric acid...Everything is relevant

You use the same methods for purchasing as you would manufacturing, transportation or chemical storage for determining environmental aspects. You look at the activity, product or service and identify the effect or potential effect that it could have upon the environment and assess it for significance...........

determining what environmental aspects could face an organization after a purchased product / service enters the organization..... or something like that. Any idea??When it comes to purchasing, wouldn't it make more sense to think about aspects BEFORE you procure the product? For example, if you are buying cardboard boxes, you can select to buy those that have a high percentage of recycled content. Another example, if you are going to buy detergent, you could choose to buy one that is biodegradable, over one that is not. Buying "green" products seem to be the most impact purchasing can have onto an EMS.

Hi

You have to consider the environmental aspects of your procurement, well before the product enters your premises, to avoid risk to your organization.

Please consider the following:

1. Environmental aspects of raw materials/process aids that you buy (e.g. While buying bulk chemical substances take into account the type (toxic, inflammabe, explosive, corrosive etc) and quantity of the substance that you have to transport and store - identify all environmental aspects during the transportation and storage as well as during the use of these substances - can you reduce the quantity of the substance that you transport and store ? can you substitute with a substance that may reduce the significance of the impact ?(Quality and quantity of substance) . Avoid banned or restricted substances like Cadmium, CFCs, Carbon tetrachloride or benzene (Regulatory)
2. Environmental Aspects of pieceparts and sub-assemblies that you buy (e.g. if these piece parts contain, say Lead and Cadmium, the final product will not be able to meet RoHS compliance; if a plastics product contains PBBE/PBB, the final product will not be able to meet RoHS compliance. These introduce end-of-life environmental impact of the product)
3. Environmental Aspects of the operations of the supplier (e.g. is the supplier using any process or substance that can cause significant environmental impact if not handled properly? Is the supplier, say, ISO-14001 certified ?)

In practice, we have a banned/restricted substances list for processes and products and we require the supplier also to follow this list. We require our supplier to be ISO-14001 certified to ensure, to a large extent, that environmental legal and other requirements are met at the supplier's end too.

With kind regards,

Ramakrishnan