In part one of our series on best practices for sustainable solar development, we went over our guidelines for sustainable solar design. For part two, we’ll discuss solar equipment procurement.
Procurement is the “P” in the acronym “EPC,” which stands for engineering, procurement, and construction. Before we discuss our journey toward sustainable procurement, let’s go over what procurement means in the context of building a solar project.
At its most basic level, procurement means purchasing the equipment for a solar project. That may sound simple, but it’s not like buying something from Amazon. Procurement involves sourcing equipment that will meet the technical design and engineering requirements at the best price and at the best time. So, a good procurement manager keeps track of all the product options from all the manufacturers and will know what’s available today and in the future.
Of course, price negotiation is a huge part of effective procurement. A high-quality solar module that can be purchased for a penny-per-watt less may not sound like a big financial difference, but for a 50 MW (50 million Watt) solar project, that penny-per-watt reduction will save half a million dollars.
Managing the overseas shipping, inland transportation, and the timing of delivery and warehousing, if necessary, are also important parts of the procurement. While it’s ideal to deliver equipment straight to the project site, sometimes it may be necessary to warehouse the equipment.
Finally, today’s solar procurement teams must assess the quality of the equipment, the bankability of the manufacturer, and, most recently, the sustainability and social governance of the manufacturer and the manufacturer’s supply chain.
Best Practices for Sustainable Solar Procurement: A time of transition
Many aspects of procurement, from manufacturing to transportation, come with their own carbon footprint that must now be evaluated with objective and verifiable metrics.
Inovateus is now learning how to measure the environmental impact of procurement and to find ways to reduce its carbon footprint within the entire solar project lifecycle.
As part of that initiative, Inovateus’ Director of Procurement, Jefferson Gerwig, recently obtained his Certified Green Purchasing Professional accreditation from the American Purchasing Society. This green purchasing course and certification revealed that the cost-saving procurement measures we already have in place can also have a positive impact on sustainability. Whether through the three R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle), energy conservation efforts, or green design and construction methods, we are learning how to reduce both project costs and procurement-related carbon emissions.
Creating a Green Purchasing Sustainability Plan
In order to meet our 2025 carbon neutrality goals, Jefferson along with others from Inovateus’ Stewardship Team developed and are now implementing a Green Purchasing Sustainability Plan. Developing this plan involves gathering information from Inovateus’ customers, employees, and solar equipment suppliers and finding methods for reducing the environmental impacts when possible and practical.
For example, solar modules are most often framed with aluminum, which has a high carbon footprint. While Inovateus can’t eliminate aluminum from modules, we can reduce the amount of aluminum used in the project by procuring fewer modules without sacrificing solar generation. One method for achieving this is to procure higher-powered bifacial modules. In addition to building projects with less aluminum, designing projects with high-powered modules reduces the amount of wiring and other balance of system (BOS) products, further lowering the project’s costs and its environmental impact.
Following an ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) Standard
Implementing net-zero carbon requires national and international standards and metrics. That’s why Inovateus has decided to follow the guidelines set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001:2015 Environmental Management System.
ISO 14001:2015 specifies requirements to develop an environmental management system (EMS) that procurement and entire companies can use to fulfill and achieve our environmental objectives. The standard also applies to all the environmental aspects that we can either control or influence during the project’s life cycle perspective, such as having a decommissioning plan that includes options for solar panel recycling.
Following ISO 14001:2015 guidelines is a multistep process that Inovateus has already begun to implement. One of the first steps was creating a public environmental policy statement (EPS).
As part of this EPS, Inovateus is becoming more digital, traveling smarter, and finding more efficient procurement methods.
In Part three of best practices for sustainable solar development, we’ll explore how Inovateus is reducing or eliminating construction waste at our company and at our solar job sites.
