About GPN

The Green Purchasing Network (GPN) was established in February 1996 to promote green purchasing among consumers, businesses and governmental organizations in Japan. As of April 2004, it has about 2,800 member organizations, including corporations, local governments, consumer groups, environmental NGOs, and cooperative associations. GPN promotes the ideas and practices of green purchasing by holding seminars and exhibitions throughout the country, draws up purchasing guidelines for each category of products and services, publishes environmental Data Base on products, surveys the status quo, and awards commendations to organizations that have shown remarkable performance in implementing green purchasing.

The GPN members consist of major big businesses, small-and-medium-sized enterprises, Ministry of the Environment, local governments, consumer organizations, and environmental NGOs; including NEC, Matsushita(Panasonic), Sony, Fuji Xerox, Toyota, Honda, Nippon Steel, Canon, Japan IBM, Tokyo Gas, Nissan, Ricoh, Mitsubishi corporation, NKK, Oji paper, Suntory, all the prefectural governments, municipal governments of Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Kobe, Nagoya; Sapporo, Kyoto, Hukuoka, WWF-J, and Japanese Consumers' Co-operative Union.

"Principles of Green Purchasing"

Soon after the GPN launched, it began to create the Principles of Green Purchasing which present basic concept of green purchasing. The GPN executive board members from various sectors discussed again and again to build consensus on the Principles for half a year. Then the Principles were finalized after gathering comments from all the thousands of members. The Principles have been revised in2001, and now consist of 4 major principles. The first principle presented is "to consider necessity before purchasing". Principle 2 is to "note the environmental impact of a product at all stages of its life cycle." which is followed by eight detailed proposals included. Principle 3 suggests to consider corporations' and distributors' environmental performance, while Principle 4 promotes the gathering of environmental information when purchasing products. These principles are actually reflected in the green purchasing policies drawn up by many of our member companies and government bodies.

Purchasing Guidelines・for each type of product

The GPN has also been drawing up specific Purchasing Guidelines for each category of products, based on the Principles. So far, the following Guidelines were completed. Recently, the Guidelines have been expanded to service fields such as Printing and Hotels and lodges.

■	Printing and Copying paper
■	Copiers, printers, facsimile machines
■	Personal computers
■	Stationery and office supplies
■	Office furniture
■	Toilet paper
■	Tissue paper
■	Lighting apparatus and lamps
■	Motorcars
■	Refrigerators
■	Washing machines
■	Air conditioners
■	TV sets
■	Uniform and work wear
■	Offset printing service
■	Hotels and lodges
■	Toilet facilities

When starting to make these Guidelines, we recruit Task Group (TG) members to involve all interested stakeholders in the consensus building process. The purchasing guidelines list important matters that should be taken into consideration when making purchases, and encourage buyers to select products with less environmental impact. For instance, The guidelines for "Copying machines" addresses energy consumption, two-sided copy functions, collection and recycling of used products and cartridges, the use of reusable parts and recycled materials, and avoiding the use of halogenated substances and heavy metals.

"GPN Data Base to" help purchasers compare and select products

The GPN has developed "GPN Data Base for Green Purchasing", which provides purchasers with quantitative/qualitative environmental information on each product in accordance with the Purchasing Guidelines. We have published data base on Copying and printing paper, Copiers, printers, facsimile machines, PCs, Stationery and office supplies, Toilet and tissue paper, Lighting apparatus and lamps, Motorcars, Refrigerators, Washing machines, TV sets, Uniforms and work wear, and Hotels and Inns. (see Table 1)

In the "PC" version, environmental information on about 800 products is presented regarding the efficiency of energy consumption, compliance with international Energy Star standards, two-side copying functions, the use of reusable parts and recycled plastic, etc. The data base covers most major products of its kind in current Japanese market. GPN provides this information on our website. Now we have more than 11,000 products・data of 16 categories on our Data Base on the website, and update them 4 times per year.

According to our hearings to relevant companies, GPN guidelines and Data Base have influenced the industries not a little so far, not only because many purchasers uses our guidelines and data books for their decision, but also because it is the first time for companies to be compared with competitors・products from environmental points of view.

Promotion of green purchasing

Since green purchasing power must be big enough to change industry through the market, promoting implementation of green purchasing is important GPN activities, together with providing information as mentioned above. So, we are also engaged in the following activities to promote green purchasing.

- Hold nationwide and regional seminars and exhibitions throughout the country
- Introduce success stories of green purchasing
- Award commendations to excellent members practicing green purchasing
- Conduct a survey on the current status of green purchasing, and on consumers・awareness
- Publish newsletters
- Public relations activities focused on the mass media, etc.

Dissemination of green purchasing in Japan

Along with the establishment and expansion of the GPN activities, stakeholders are increasingly interested in green purchasing. Green purchasing is often introduced on TV or in newspapers, while green purchasing is frequently chosen as a theme for seminars sponsored by the governments or private companies. In particular, local governments and major corporations which are large purchasers, are generally moving towards implementing green purchasing. In response to these movements, many manufacturer are recently accelerating eco-design and development of eco-products in Japan.

Table 1. "Contents of Environmental Data Base of Copiers"
(actually only in Japanese)

Product	Company	Copy speed (/minute)	Energy consumption	Energy Star	Two-side Copy	Use of reused parts	Use of recycled plastic	Recycling of cartridges	Special note	price (yen)
Produc A	W	40	250Wh	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	◎
Produc B	X	40	157Wh	Yes	No	No	No	◎
Produc C	Y	40	209Wh	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	○
Produc D	Y	45	256Wh	No	Yes	No	Yes	○
Produc E	Z	45	195Wh	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	◎
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