responsibilities and stated all members of the depart-
ment are responsible to manage resources and energy
consumption (DOD 2008).
Because DOD is the largest government purchas-
er of contract goods and services (Hutton and Solis
2010), there is tremendous opportunity to catalyze
change through procurement, not only within the
department, but also more broadly across domestic
and international markets. Defense facilities and op-
erations require a large and diverse array of products
and services. Therefore, if sustainable procurement
(broader than ‘green’ procurement) were the norm it
would have a marked effect on the demand for less-
damaging goods. There are opportunities to pursue
leadership and to create, or expand, markets in many
areas. For example, the U.S. Department of Com-
merce reports that the DOD purchased more than $1.8
billion in textiles and apparel in 2002. If these items
were sustainable (e.g. made from recycled material,
produced with limited chemical input, and produced
without child labor) this would generate a strong mar-
ket for these materials.
Many of the three million DOD employees work
in administrative settings and use significant amounts
of paper. Ensuring DOD procures paper with at least
50% post-consumer recycled content, as federal law
mandates (10 U.S.C 2378), would have a considerable
effect. The law, however, allows exemptions based on
cost and availability, subverting the idea of environ-
mental and economic conditions are interrelated. This
contributes to the Catch-22 of increasing recycled con-
tent in any product. Paper, with high post-consumer
recycled content, remains more expensive and less
readily available, at least in part, because the market
for it is less stable. If the DOD were to ignore these ex-
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