Green Procurement System - The same as an EMS?

[KidPaddy]

Hello guys,

been recently assigned to qa section and our section was given the responsibility for the green procurement system.
isn't this the same as EMS? i know a little about green procurement but can anybody help me to broaden my knowledge on this subject matter?
is there a training plan template for this? procedure?
tnx a lot in advance.

[knight_sirk]

In Reply to Parent Post by KidPaddy

been recently assigned to qa section and our section was given the responsibility for the green procurement system.
isn't this the same as EMS? :

For us, Green Procurement/Green Purchasing is part of our EMS
(specifically in the Environmental Policy) which is also a customer specific requirement.

In Reply to Parent Post by KidPaddy

i know a little about green procurement but can anybody help me to broaden my knowledge on this subject matter?
is there a training plan template for this? procedure?
tnx a lot in advance.

We have a separate Group/Section responsible for GP activities and programs.

With established manuals, procedures and work standards which is applied to all components and materials procured from external sources.

This inlcudes:
Screening of banned substances in purchased products (thru EDX machine,
ICP data from supplier, etc.).

Internal control in segregating Compliant and Non-compliant materials (RoHS/ELV).

Production control (process and documents).

Finished goods control (indication of RoHS/ELV Compliant/Non-compliant)

[RCBeyette]

As Knight has indicated, buying green is merely a portion of an EMS. If you're now in QA, let me put in quality terms...buying good stuff doesn't mean you have a QMS, there are other aspects that need to be included.

That being said, who is responsible for your procurement process? If it's not QA, why isn't that person responsible for green procurement...after all, logically, procurement is procurement (whether it's entails green initiatives or not) and the process owner should be championing the evolution towards environmentally-friendly shopping sprees.

[harry]

In Reply to Parent Post by RCBeyette

...after all, logically, procurement is procurement (whether it's entails green initiatives or not)

You have to be very careful with this one. Some procurement such as those for electronics industries are very highly technical. You need to know what are the materials that go into a certain component, know whether there is any exemption, know how to estimate or calculate its composition in order to know if it meets the approved percentage limit and so on.

Therefore, there are some that argue that both ISO 9k & 14k does not address their requirements. One of the reasons is the above (purchasing people not well versed or technical enough to qualify as purchasers) and therefore they are pushing for an alternative certification ie: QC080000 or even EIA/ECCB-954.

Please read the article - Controlling Heavy Metals in the October issue of Quality Digest Magazine for further details.

[RCBeyette]

In Reply to Parent Post by harry

You have to be very careful with this one.

What I meant was that procurement within the Original Poster's organization is procurement. They should be the experts on buying stuff, including legal/regulatory stuff. If they aren't the experts within the organization on the laws, then they should include the appropriate people. But they should be the champions of the "Buy Green" initiative.

To have someone else establish a green procurement process runs the risk of separate systems. It only makes sense that buying stuff entails all requirements both quality, environment, safety...no matter what it is and should be headed up by the process owner.

[Dr. L. Ramakrishnan]

Hi,

If you have established an EMS according to ISO-14001, this subject has to be a part of your EMS (linked via significant aspects of your products/ activities (4.3.1), legal and other requirements (4.3.2) and operational control procedures (4.4.6)). Otherwise your EMS may not meet the requirement of ISO-14001 (2004) standard.

The following link may be of interest to you to know more about green purchasing: http://www.igpn.org/

With best regards,

Ramakrishnan

[Paul Simpson]

In Reply to Parent Post by KidPaddy

Hello guys,

been recently assigned to qa section and our section was given the responsibility for the green procurement system.
isn't this the same as EMS? i know a little about green procurement but can anybody help me to broaden my knowledge on this subject matter?
is there a training plan template for this? procedure?
tnx a lot in advance.

Looks like Green procurement may be an objective (4.3.3) supported by some targets (4.3.3) and requiring a programme (4.3.3) to complete each stage. Once it is in place and objectives are met then it might be institutionalized and become operational control (4.4.6).

As has been mentioned there are plenty of other clauses that may need to be satisfied.

[vanputten]

EMS = Environmental Management System. That is, a defined system to manage your orgnaization's actual or potentail impacts on the environemnt.

Procurement is one area within a management system.

Not even close to the same thing. An EMS includes procurement. Procurement does NOT include a managment system.

*** The above is valid unless your entire organization provides procurement service as its main business purpose. If your organiztion's main business system is to provide a procurement service, then an EM system and the process of procurement are not the same thing.

Regards,

Dirk