U.S. Postal Service Gets Green Award

Cleanwise LLC, a division of Network Services Company, has been recognized by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for contributing to its winning a 2009 Closing the Circle Award. The White House presented this award in June 2009 to the Postal Service for leadership in environmental stewardship.

Through its Green Purchasing Program, the USPS incorporates the evaluation of environmentally preferable products into purchasing decisions—along with price, quality and delivery standards. Cleanwise, which provides the USPS with janitorial supplies and services, was one of the first companies involved in the Green Purchasing Program and chaired its modeling team. Additional initiatives undertaken by Cleanwise to help the USPS included increasing the number of green items on the USPS contract by 400% and development of quarterly sustainability reports that measure waste reduction, source reduction, water savings, and other key metrics.

“We are proud of our participation in the Green Purchasing Program and our continuing successful working relationship with the Postal Service,” says Bob Mitchum, CEO and President of Network Services Company, the parent company of Cleanwise. “We look forward to continuing to leverage and grow our technology, expertise, and procurement partnerships to the benefit of the USPS.”

A few weeks earlier, the Postal Service honored Cleanwise with its Supplier Diversity Award and its Supplier Performance Award for 2008. In 2007 and 2006, the USPS also awarded Cleanwise its Supplier Performance Award, making Cleanwise the first supplier to win this award three years in a row.

This most recent Closing the Circle Award, signed by President Obama, is the 40th White House Closing the Circle Awards that the Postal Service has won since the program’s inception in 1995. Across the organization, USPS is integrating environmental business practices into daily operations. In FY 2008, USPS spent more than $88 million in the acquisition of environmentally preferable products, including remanufactured automobile parts, retreaded tires, recycled content paper products, custodial products, and Cradle to Cradle-certified shipping boxes and envelopes. (Cradle to Cradle is an environmental certification by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, awarded to Priority Mail and Express Mail packaging and envelopes produced by Bell that have met 39 criteria for human and environmental health characteristics, including recyclability and manufacturing attributes.)

Network Services Company is a member owned organization of more than 75 member-distributors with combined global annual revenue of $15 billion.