Sustainable purchasing, also known as environmentally preferable purchasing (EPP), shifts city purchasing to procurement of goods and services that have a reduced effect on the natural environment and human health when compared to competing products and services that serve the same purpose. While life-cycle assessments offer the best metric for determining what is the most sustainable, product and service attributes are commonly used as a proxy, and include:
- Increased energy efficiency
- Reduced toxicity
- Beneficial to indoor air quality
- Water-conserving
- Recycled-content
- Minimized waste
- Plant-based
- Locally produced
- Embodied energy/life-cycle greenhouse gas impact