Why is purchasing important?

Materials processing

Manufacturing & assembly

UseEnd of life disposal

Transportation

Smarter Purchasing

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America is a nation of “stuff.” We make a lot of it, we buy a lot of it, and we throw away a lot of it. Unfortunately for us, every product we buy has an environmental impact that reaches far beyond our own time spent with it. Most products undergo a journey that starts long before they reach our hands, and continues on long after we dispose of them as waste.

Each phase of this journey contributes its own health and environmental impacts. Most of these are related to the use of fossil fuels for key activities throughout the product’s life, including materials procurement and processing, the manufacture and assembly of parts, product disposal, and the transport of the product from place to place. The burning of these fossil fuels contributes to reduced air quality and climate change. Additionally, many products require the addition of toxic chemicals which humans can be exposed to through use. The manufacture and disposal can also yield toxic byproducts such as dioxins, mercury and lead.

Raw materials extraction

Transportation

Transp

ortation

Transportation

“Smarter Purchasing” Resources

Photos• http://grmsolutions.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Consumer-

Products.jpg• http

://vivo.ufl.edu/file/n40454/School+of+Natural+Resources+and+Environment.jpg

• http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/EcoCenter-Air-Smoking-Smokestack-631.jpg

• http://www.discoverycorpsinc.com/storage/articles-files-beginning-2011/Grab_bag_pic2%20-%20row%20of%20factory%20machines.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1304990106430

• http://image.made-in-china.com/6f3j00QvOTuFqtaErm/Finished-Product-Warehouse.jpg

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