By Brandon Ellis, Regional Sales Manager | Facility Service Group
For higher education procurement and facilities leaders, the work never stops. You’re juggling aging buildings, deferred maintenance backlogs, sustainability goals and increasing regulatory expectations, all while keeping campus environments safe, reliable and comfortable for students, faculty and staff.
Traditional procurement methods often slow progress with complex RFPs and months of bidding cycles, all while hoping the lowest bidder can deliver on their proposed services. By the time a project starts, costs may have escalated and campus priorities may have shifted. There’s a better way.
The Value of Cooperative Purchasing in Higher Education
Cooperative purchasing agreements (CPAs), including those ACCO Engineered Systems participates in, streamline the procurement of HVAC, mechanical and plumbing services for colleges and universities.
Cooperative procurement platforms competitively bid contracts at a national or regional level to meet all public procurement requirements. Institutions can then “piggyback” on these pre-bid contracts to access established pricing, prequalified vendors, and a simplified purchasing process that saves time, mitigates risk and delivers consistent value.
Solving Today’s Facility and Procurement Challenges
1. Budget predictability
Higher education budgets are increasingly constrained, and traditional low-bid models often result in change orders or unexpected scope gaps. Cooperative contracts prioritize best value rather than lowest cost, offering transparent pricing and volume-based discounts. This helps institutions plan more accurately, manage grant or capital funds responsibly and reduce financial uncertainty.
2. Significant time savings
Major capital or maintenance projects can take months to competitively bid. With a cooperative purchasing agreement, the competitive process is already complete. Universities can simply request a quote and issue a PO, transforming a lengthy RFP cycle into a matter of days.
3. Built-in compliance protection
Public universities and community colleges operate under strict procurement policies. Cooperative contracts are developed by experts in public procurement to align with local, state and federal requirements. This gives institutions a clear audit trail and confidence that every purchase meets regulatory standards. Contractors participating in these contracts, like ACCO, are already versed in the compliance expectations that accompany higher ed projects.
4. Trusted performance and reduced risk
Procurement teams oversee a wide range of purchases and may not have in-house expertise for every mechanical or technical system. At times, well-meaning vendors may recommend equipment that only one contractor is licensed to sell locally, unintentionally restricting competition and driving up long-term costs.
Cooperative purchasing reduces risk by ensuring contractors are thoroughly vetted for financial soundness, licensing, safety performance and industry experience before contracts are awarded. Through a cooperative platform, institutions gain direct access to proven mechanical partners, ACCO included, who can support both routine work and complex infrastructure upgrades.
5. Less administrative burden, more strategic leadership
Manual bid management, evaluations and documentation can overwhelm limited procurement and facilities staff. Cooperative purchasing streamlines these tasks, freeing your team to focus on long-term planning, energy efficiency initiatives and campus modernization. Institutions can also consolidate vendors across multiple sites or campuses to standardize equipment, improve service continuity and replicate successful project outcomes.
Bringing Strategy to the Forefront
Consider the next time a chiller fails during peak season or a building system needs urgent replacement. Rather than initiating an emergency procurement effort or racing to collect quotes, your institution can leverage an existing cooperative contract. You contact ACCO, request a quote and issue a PO. Work begins almost immediately with transparent pricing and full compliance.
No delays. No protests. No uncertainty.
Through cooperative purchasing, ACCO helps higher education institutions transition from reactive procurement to strategic facility management. The result: greater flexibility, clearer visibility and trusted expertise to keep your campus running efficiently, without compromising compliance, control or operational excellence.