Salt Lake bidding process goes green

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson has approved a change to the city's bidding processes that will give companies that hawk environmentally friendly products a leg up on the competition.

The city will now give preference in awarding city contracts to companies that sell products containing "the maximum amount of post-consumer and/or recovered materials practicable."

"Salt Lake City purchases millions of dollars worth of products every year," Anderson said in a statement. "Giving preference to products that do less harm to our environment and that are made from recycled materials is another critical piece of Salt Lake City's comprehensive approach to environmental protection."

Today, Anderson is to receive the Utah Medical Association's Environmental Stewardship Award.

In July, Anderson approved more sweeping changes to the city's bidding process. Under those changes, businesses receive preference for city contracts if they pay a living wage, have a written non-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation, have conducted an apprenticeship in the past 12 months through the state apprenticeship program, have pre-employment and "for-cause" drug testing, and are Salt Lake City businesses with 30 employees or fewer and annual gross revenues of less than $1 million.

To qualify for the preference system, a company's bid must be within 4 percent of the lowest submitted bid for projects less than $250,000. It must be within 1 percent of the lowest bid for contracts between $250,000 and $1 million and within $20,000 of the lowest bid for contracts greater than $1 million.