Sarah O'Brien, CEO of the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council

Sarah O’Brien is CEO of the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC), a nonprofit organization that leads a global community of purchasers, suppliers, advocates, and experts dedicated to building a sustainable world through the power of procurement. SPLC’s public sector and corporate procurement members represent some $800B in annual purchasing power.

Ms. O’Brien is a recognized expert on sustainable procurement and environmentally and socially sustainable electronics. Immediately prior to joining SPLC, she directed the multi-stakeholder Clean Electronics Production Network (CEPN), where leading IT brands, NGOs, and suppliers collaborated toward eliminating worker exposure to toxic chemicals in electronics production. For more than a decade previously, she led global stakeholder engagement with the EPEAT IT hardware sustainability rating tool (which she participated in developing through a US EPA-sponsored process) for the Green Electronics Council.

Earlier, Ms. O’Brien developed and led the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program of the US nonprofit Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (now Practice Greenhealth), and served as a Senior Outreach Associate for nonprofit INFORM, assisting states and cities across the US to reduce procurement of products containing mercury and other persistent toxins. Prior to entering the field of sustainable procurement, she worked as a state and regional legislative advocate and community organizer for the National Wildlife Federation and Vermont Public Interest Research Group, with a focus on toxics elimination, pesticide regulation, power plant pollution controls, and other environmental health issues.

Sarah O’Brien holds a BA from Yale University and an MA in anthropology from Temple University.