Director of Purchasing Kevin Lyons is one of many at Rutgers committed to making the university a leader in “green” initiatives – environmentally sound policies beneficial to the university community, New Jersey, the nation and the world. His work takes him to universities around the nation and international conferences in Latin America and northern Europe.

His job title does little to describe the real scope of his job. "Most folks don’t think of what I do as environmental – to a lot of people, we just buy stuff,” Lyons said. “But I tie the two together.”

New Jersey has been a leader in the United States in the area of environmentally responsible business practices. State laws passed in the late 1980s – when Lyons first came to Rutgers as a buyer – compelled businesses and institutions to recycle at least 25 percent of their waste. Rutgers recycles nearly three times that amount, Lyons said, and the university has always been a few steps ahead other institutions in terms of sustainable practices.

Lyons recognizes that the items Rutgers University needs to operate – from rubber bands to rubber tires, from lab chemicals to cleaning chemicals – have to come from somewhere. Lyons wants to know everything about how the product is made, as well as the best way to reduce the product’s impact on the environment at Rutgers, in New Jersey, and on the world.