The County issued an RFP in May 2008 for laundry services for a variety of workplaces including clinics, repair shops, and other County facilities.
- The laundry operations aspect of the procurement provided an opportunity to integrate sustainability attributes for toxics reduction and water conservation.
- The service aspect allowed for the integration of more sustainable packaging and transportation criteria.
Vendor's Sustainability Practices
- Uses recycled metal hangers and has discontinued use of twist ties.
- Optimizes gas usage and reduce emissions through an automated routing system.
- Converted some of their vehicles to alternative fuels.
- Spent $225,000 in 2006 to upgrade their recycled water and waste water system, reducing water consumption by 18%.
- Implemented a number of water reuse and reduction measures throughout the country, including heat exchangers and other equipment to reclaim waste heat.
- Partners with other sustainably focused businesses (e.g SCA for paper)
Integrating Sustainability Criteria into the RFP
Of the 200 total evaluation points in the RFP, 50 of them were reserved for sustainability criteria. Purchasing and the Sustainability Program collaborated to develop the RFP.
Criteria included:
- Packaging—recyclability, recycled content.
- Alternative fuels, emission reduction plans.
- Water conservation and discharge practices.
- Toxics reduction—no perchloroethylene.
- Requested information about sustainability practices in support of the County’s Sustainability Principles.