E&I Members: How likely are you to recommend E&I Cooperative Services to a peer?
The American Society of Civil Engineers rated infrastructure at U.S. K-12 school with a D+ grade. The situation isn’t any better at many colleges and universities. Inside Higher Ed’s 2025 study showed that 63% of campuses reported they could only fund about a quarter of their current infrastructure needs. Deferred maintenance has become a serious liability. An analysis done by Moody’s a year earlier estimated that higher education needs to spend between $750 and $950 billion to even “make significant headway toward reducing deferred maintenance.”
For procurement leaders, facilities directors, and operations teams, these numbers illustrate a growing challenge. Educational institutions are being asked to maintain aging infrastructure with limited budgets and staffing challenges. Dollars are tight, and every purchasing decision matters, particularly when it involves the maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) supplies needed to keep campuses functioning safely and efficiently.
Schools and universities have different requirements than most private-sector organizations. A campus may include academic buildings, laboratories, residence halls, athletic facilities, dining operations, maintenance shops, utility infrastructure, and administrative offices. Supporting these environments requires access to a broad range of products and dependable supplier support.
When evaluating MRO suppliers, educational procurement teams typically look for:
These types of products span dozens of categories and can include hundreds of items. Finding a supplier who can handle your needs and offers affordable pricing can be a challenge.
Several national suppliers serve the industrial, facilities, and MRO marketplace, including companies like Grainger. Grainger is one of the most comprehensive suppliers for educational institutions because of its breadth across facilities maintenance, safety, janitorial operations, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, inventory management, and MRO categories.
In addition to its extensive product catalog, Grainger offers solutions such as KeepStock inventory management and industrial vending programs that help organizations improve operational efficiency beyond simply purchasing products.
However, there are other companies like Grainger that offer high-quality products as well, including:
Comparing Grainger vs. Uline specifically, you’ll find that Uline’s core product line is focused on office products and hard goods like trash and recycling cans, tools, and building and office furniture. Grainger has a broader selection of MRO categories with a catalog featuring more than 600,000 items.
When procurement teams compare suppliers, the conversation often begins with products and pricing. However, in education, you must factor in compliance requirements, sourcing workload, contract management, and purchasing efficiency. Even if an institution identifies a preferred supplier, obtaining access may still require a competitive solicitation process depending on institutional policies and state regulations.
Procurement strategy becomes just as important as supplier selection. A supplier with a broad catalog can certainly help facilities teams. But if accessing that supplier requires significant procurement resources, the total cost of purchasing extends beyond the products themselves.
Through E&I’s competitively solicited Grainger contract, schools, colleges, and universities can access Grainger’s extensive catalog of MRO supplies, safety products, janitorial solutions, facilities maintenance materials, inventory management programs, and operational support.
Rather than conducting separate RFPs for facilities purchases, procurement teams can leverage E&I’s cooperative agreement designed specifically for education. This helps reduce the procurement workload while supporting compliance and providing access to one of the industry’s broadest facilities and maintenance catalogs.
As deferred maintenance challenges continue to grow across education, procurement teams need solutions that help them do more with limited resources. The Grainger contract through E&I can help. Leveraging the aggregated demand of more than 6,500 academic institutions, E&I achieves significant volume discounts through a competitive sourcing process. Many institutions can reduce costs by 10-15% by adopting cooperative agreements.
Save time and money. Learn more about the Grainger contract available through E&I Cooperative Services.