To help organizations interested in eco-friendly purchasing, ASU's Sustainable Purchasing Research Initiative is partnering with the Environmental Protection Agency on sustainablepurchasing.issuelab.org.

The website features a searchable database of research articles related to the concept of “servicizing,” which promotes a more environmentally responsible way for businesses, nonprofits, governments and individuals to meet their purchasing needs.

"This new ‘servicizing’ approach offers and charges customers for the function of a product rather than the product itself,” explains Senior Sustainability Scientist Lily Hsueh. “Producers or vendors are the ‘owners’ of the products and consumers pay to be ‘users’ of the products.”

The website features a keyword search and provides crowd-sourced information, allowing anyone to share knowledge about servicizing or recommend other resources to be added to the database.