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Environmentally preferable purchasing: a survey of the telecommunications industry

The US Environmental Protection Agency published the "Final Guidance on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing for Executive Agencies" on August 28, 1999. While the intent of environmentally preferable purchasing (EPP) is clear, less transparent is the way the government will actually implement these guidelines. This paper raises questions about the basis upon which to measure environmental preferability of products and services. The telecommunications industry serves as a case study of systems analysis and supply chain management decisions, and substitution of competing and functionally equivalent or better, environmentally more preferable services (e.g., work-related travel vs. telecommuting). As DfE and LCA are concepts with various practical approaches, we suggest a framework to analyze various approaches to determine the environmental preference of products and services. Comprehensive LCAs of the environmental costs and benefits of substitute telecommunications services are needed, including economy-wide, supply chain effects.