Sustainability is a daily conversation in the PlanetBids’ world of eProcurement. In fact, it’s something we strive to practice ourselves, not just preach to agency clients.
As a fully remote workforce with an office location in Los Angeles that is optional for employees to work from, it’s a bit harder to put together “sustainable” practices in our work environment.
“When we get together for key gatherings – because you do need human interaction – we make sure were intentional with the gatherings that we have,” PlanetBids CEO Dave DiGiacomo said. “We’re going through now and looking at other ways to save, just little tips for everybody like, how do you save water or how do you reduce waste.”
PlanetBids utilizes Slack for quick, informal communication between employees and teams, and in addition to the regular team slack channels, they’ve also created a channel focused on sustainability.
“We’re providing little tips and tricks that we can be doing as an employee base from home to help reduce waste and create a more sustainable environment,” DiGiacomo said.
But beyond using washable hand towels and turning off lights when not in use, PlanetBids is focused on helping clients build more sustainable practices as well.
In addition to the obvious paper reduction, procurement software solutions like the PB System™ from PlanetBids can help agencies make more environmentally friendly choices in the bid award process.
While more sustainable products and vendors tend to cost more up front, they actually save agencies and taxpayers money in the long run by reducing waste, limiting excess spending, building long-term environmental protections, and eliminating regulatory action.
And selecting a sustainable vendor or manufacturer can make a huge impact over time.
“There have been many studies on this – like, how does a carpet manufacturer, for example, save the world?” DiGiacomo said. “But you start looking at the nylon that is in carpet that never goes away, the polymers, the rubbers, the oils, the petroleum products that are in there. It all adds up. All these things generate a lot of waste.”
And eProcurement solutions can help agencies make sure they’re purchasing the right amount of materials, ensuring savings as basic as reducing waste from the amount of scrap is being thrown away during installation.
Sometimes, however, those sustainable choices do cost more upfront, but eProcurement solutions help agencies choose the most valuable vendor selections overall, rather than just focusing on upfront costs, while helping them balance the budget in other areas to account for the difference.
“When you look at why companies are interested in saving the planet, yes, it’s the right thing to help future generations be able to enjoy the things we’re able to enjoy today,” DiGiacomo said. “But if agencies and companies make this a priority, they can actually have a much more profitable and healthy business by doing the right thing. The question is, ‘How do you minimize the effects of every purchase across the board?’”
The change isn’t easy, and it takes a proven method – and word of mouth from trusted sources who are willing to be the first to take the jump – to spread the sustainability message.
There’s also the challenge of approvals and regulatory requirements. Adopting an eProcurement solution that’s already approved for use by federal and state governments – such as PlanetBids’ AEP Certification from the National Procurement Institute – can help address these concerns.
“Every time we get a client somewhere new to start using our product, they start talking to their friends and neighbors and colleagues about it,” DiGiacomo said. “The next thing you know, we get these concentric rings of influence because it’s just created such a difference in their workflow day-to-day, and then they can reap the benefits of efficiency and dollars saved from this treeless process.”
That process helps save more than 2000 trees each year from bid notifications and responses and cuts more than 61,000 commute hours by moving in-person bid meetings online.
The easily recognizable benefits to using the PB System™ daily are all the things we experienced during the work-from-home era of the pandemic. But there are more unique benefits as well.
“We can have contractors put in for multiple different sub bids to qualify for different projects out there in one place. We can reduce the big trucks meeting in one place to talk about and sign up to be subs on a bid project, for example. When we look at sustainability from a large scale, yes we want to take advantage of moving to a digital age, but the big components are being able to make the smart decisions to create a long-term sustainability journey for your agency.”
Want to learn more about how PlanetBids can help your agency start that journey towards sustainability? Reach out now to schedule a meeting with one of our procurement experts.
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