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Developing the Project • 101

assessed the purchasing alternatives and identified the various sources
of equipment and services needed. The results of the purchasing needs
definition will be a purchasing requirements document that then can be
used for the next step.
The next step is to take the output of the purchase planning—the rel-
evant purchasing documents—and transmit those documents to potential
suppliers. As green becomes a way of doing business, suppliers of greener
products will become numerous, and prices will become more competitive,
as saving in energy costs, for example, are realized by the suppliers. But we
assert that this should not be left to chance. This is actually somewhat of
a communications issue. Your vendors and suppliers should be very clear
on your intent. They should know that green is important to your project.
Knowing this, they will proactively offer you green options—or should, if
they know their business. Some of the typical documents used to obtain
purchase information from suppliers are the invitation to bid, request for
proposal, and request for quote. (See Table 6.1 for the differences between
each.) Included in the information sent to potential suppliers will be: (1)
what will be purchased, (2) when it will be needed, and (3) questions as to
what the potential supplier is doing to green their processes and products
or services. The project manager and team can request the information
from the supplier either via written documentation sent to potential sup-
pliers or with written documentation furnished at a face-to-face meeting.
Either way, detailed documents have to be prepared. The level of detail and
how much time is spent on those documents depends on the purchase. A
purchase that is expensive, has a high degree of technicality, has only a
few suppliers, is needed at a specific time in the project schedule, or has

taBle 6.1
Solicitation Documents
type explanation
Invitation to bid (IFB) Invitation to participate in sealed bid procurement.
It is the initiation of the process. The IFB contains all
the information required by a bidder to submit a
responsive bid.
Request for quote (RFQ) Originally there was a technical difference between RFQ
Request for proposal (RFP) and RFP. An RFP was used to solicit firm offers and upon
acceptance became a contract. The difference between the
two has become blurred. Both are used in negotiated
acquisitions to communicate requirements to selected
contractors to solicit proposals or quotes.