The George Washington University Renews Biobased Conversation

Sustainability efforts continue to grow across the United States, including a growing commitment from academic institutions like the George Washington University (GW) in Washington D.C. Earlier this year, the university named Kathleen Merrigan, Ph.D., as its first executive director of sustainability. She’ll lead the university’s sustainability efforts and launch a sustainability institute.

Merrigan is very familiar with soy as a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based chemicals in industrial uses.

“I’ve been a big advocate for the biobased-product industry, which is not solely soy, but is predominantly soy at this point,” she explains.

Merrigan’s also a former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). With this background, it comes as no surprise that she was excited to host a soy-checkoff-funded event, the Biobased Stakeholder’s Dialogue, on GW’s campus. Attendees included representatives of biobased companies and a variety of government officials interested in federal procurement policies. The event put manufacturers of soy-based and other biobased products in contact with government purchasers.

Federal agencies and contractors are required under the federal BioPreferred® program to purchase products that contain biobased content up to a designated percentage for a particular product category.

“We have a statutory requirement for federal procurement of biobased products, but we need to move the needle,” Merrigan says. “The procurement mandate was an important first step, but more work is required.”

The needle Merrigan mentioned is heading in the right direction. Through communication and education efforts, more government officials are aware of the procurement policies in place and learning to utilize them to their department’s benefit.

“Many representatives from the federal government at the meeting were aware of the procurement requirements in place. If we turn back the clock two or three years, that would not have been the case,” says Merrigan. “It was really encouraging to see that we have a federal procurement requirement that has started to permeate the bureaucracies.”

Though manufacturers of biobased products from any feedstock were invited to attend the dialogue, it was evident that the soy industry was best represented at the meeting and created the most conversation. The checkoff has supported research and innovation on hundreds of industrial uses that contain soy, many of which are registered under the BioPreferred® program. For example, read about a soy-based plywood adhesive that greatly reduces the formaldehyde content in the product.