Chapter 7 - Promoting the Commonwealth's Socio-Economic Initiatives

The Commonwealth’s procurement professionals have -leveraged the tremendous purchasing power of the state to demand lower prices and better quality products and services. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth is also increasing its demand for cleaner or “greener” products, for products made locally and for products manufactured or sold by small businesses. Using the considerable procurement leverage of the Commonwealth, VITA is committed to achieving the following socio-economic goals, as appropriate to the procurement:

• Encouraging the participation of a more diverse supplier base of small businesses, including small businesses owned by women, minorities, and service-disabled veterans in IT procurement transactions, as well as micro-businesses.
• Promoting the procurement of energy-saving and environmentally-friendly information technology (IT) products.
• Substantially increasing the procurement of recycled content/products, including the procurement of energy- and water-efficient products,
• The Commonwealth is “leading by example” to reduce plastic pollution and solid waste, mandating the total elimination of the buying, selling, or distribution of non-medical single use plastic and expanded polystyrene objects by 2025.