speaker-info

Sarah O’Brien

Director of Programs, Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council

As SPLC’s Director of Programs, Sarah is responsible for ensuring that SPLC’s many programs empower procurement and supply chain professionals around the globe to successfully implement high-impact sustainable purchasing practices. Sarah is an expert on sustainable purchasing and specifically on the procurement of more sustainable electronics. Prior to joining SPLC she was Director of the multi-stakeholder Clean Electronics Production Network (CEPN) working on the elimination of worker exposure to toxic chemicals in the electronics supply chain. For more than a decade previously, Sarah led global purchaser engagement with the EPEAT sustainable procurement tool for the Green Electronics Council. Earlier, Sarah developed and managed the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program of the nonprofit Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (now renamed Practice Greenhealth) and served as a Senior Outreach Associate for INFORM’s PBT-free purchasing program, working with states across the country on reducing their procurement of products containing mercury and other persistent toxics. Sarah has a BA from Yale University and a Masters degree in anthropology from Temple University.

My Sessions

Professionally managed purchasing offers immense leverage to make change at the scale needed to address global warming, and improve many other environmental, social, and economic outcomes. Institutional purchasing of goods and services represents more than $10 trillion of spend in the US each year. And every contract that a corporation, government, university or health system … read more >>

Workshop - SPLC: Engaging Allies
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