Climate & U.S. Sustainable Procurement

A knowledge center to support Federal sustainable procurement and the Sustainable Procurement Community of Practice, a forum for contract management and acquisition professionals to shape practice.

Community of Practice

 

Knowledge Center

Free Sustainable Procurement Event

World Sustainable Contracting Day 2023
A World Commerce & Contracting Foundation event, 17 May 2023
A virtual annual event on sustainable contracting. While goals and principles provide the framework for sustainability, they will be achieved through contracts!

 

Sustainable Procurement Tools

• World Bank Overview of Green Reforms and Sustainable Procurement in IPF Projects
• Sustainable Purchasing Research Initiative (ASU) - Producing actionable knowledge about sustainable purchasing globally
• Green Procurement Compilation (GSA) - a comprehensive green purchasing resource designed for federal contracting personnel and program managers. It consolidates and organizes information from federal environmental programs in one place, saving you from visiting multiple websites.
• Comprehensive Procurement Guideline (CPG, EPA)  promotes a system approach to reducing materials use and the associated environmental impacts over the materials’ entire life cycle.
• EPA’s Recommendations of Specifications, Standards, and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing (EPA's Sustainable Marketplace)
• GSA Advantage! Environmental Aisle

 

Executive Orders

• EO 14057: Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability
• EO 14008: Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad
• EO 13990: Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science To Tackle the Climate Crisis
• EO 14027: Establishment of the Climate Change Support Office
• EO 14030: Climate-Related Financial Risk
• EO 14037: Strengthening American Leadership in Clean Cars and Trucks

 

Key Documents and Resources

• Unlocking Value Through Sustainable Procurement, University of Tennessee, Haslam School of Business, School of Supply Chain
• EPA’s GHG Management Self-Assessment/Benchmarking Resource, US EPA
• Federal Environmental Symposium, taking place virtually March 28 – 31.  This year’s conference is focused on helping agencies meet sustainability goals set by the Biden-Harris Administration. Register here.  View the agenda here.
• Greenhouse Gas Management – Federal Policy Overview
  • Provides an overview of the federal policy environment. Learn about how greenhouse gas disclosures and reduction targets are currently tracked; Executive Orders and Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Cases, and GSA policies that regulate GHG.
• Greenhouse Gas Management – Begin Reducing Your Emissions Now
  • Provides an overview of how to begin reducing GHG emissions, including: 
    • how your company can become more energy-efficient; 
    • how your company can buy green power; and 
    • how to manufacture, buy or sell products that meet EPA recommended specifications, standards or ecolabels.

Highlighted Public Procurement Review

Sustainable Public Procurement: 2022 Global Review (Parts I and II)
One Planet Network
Important insight into the state of sustainable procurement across national governments, private enterprise and intergovernmental organizations worldwide.

 

Key Documents and Resources -cont.-

• A 5-Point Plan for Reducing Your Organization’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Harvard Business Review
• Greenhouse Gas Management – Completing the GHG Inventory Development Process
  • Provides an overview of the GHG inventory development process, how to set a GHG reduction target, and reporting progress against the target.
• Sustainable Procurement: Building Vocabulary To Accelerate The Federal Procurement Conversation (Steve Schooner and Evan Matsuda)
• GSA Helps Federal Agencies Meet Sustainability and Climate Adaptation Goals
• ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) 20400, Sustainable procurement (2017, English)
• The IPCC - and the new/hot 2021 report
• The Paris Agreement
• The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's)
• FAR Clauses for Provision of ENERGY STAR Certified Products
• FAR Clauses for Provision of Products Which Don’t Contain High Global Warming Potential Chemicals
• DOD Request for Information on Sustainability and Climate Related Disclosures
• GSA Steps to Reduce Embodied Carbon in GSA Design and Construction Projects
• GSA/EPA Training on How to Calculate GHG Emissions and Set Climate Impact Reduction Targets:  (Available in October at: interact.gsa.gov/)
• EPA Center for Corporate Climate Leadership, resource center to support organizations in greenhouse gas (GHG) measurement and management
• EPA’s Simplified GHG Emissions Calculator
• EPA’s Guide to Greenhouse Gas Management for Small Businesses and Low Emitters
• Climate Disclosure Project
• Global Reporting Initiative
• Science Based Targets Initiative
• EPA ENERGY STAR Industrial Program
• EPA Recommendations of Specifications, Standards, and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing

 

General Reading

• The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, David Wallace-Wells
• The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here, Hope Jahren
• All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson
• Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, Elizabeth Rush
• All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon's Perspective on Climate Change, Michael Klare
• Generation Dread, Britt Wray

 

Partners, The Coalition of Willing

• Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC)
• Sustainable Purchasing Research Initiative (at ASU)
• Association of Climate Change Officers (ACCO)
• Green Growth Knowledge
• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
• Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP)
• Index Methodology (UNEP)

 

EPA Updated Resources to Aid Federal Purchasers

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released an updated Framework for the Assessment of Environmental Performance Standards and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing under its Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) program, and a webpage highlighting ecolabel criteria that address perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). These actions are a key step in implementing President Biden’s Executive Order on Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs through Federal Sustainability and the accompanying Federal Sustainability Plan.

 

Climate Foundations Coaching Program

• Eight Month Virtual Coaching Course
  From the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council
  Procurement is on the front line of an organization’s climate strategy.

 

 

Federal Working Groups Feds Can Join for Help

• Interagency Committee on Alternative Fuels and Low Emission Vehicles (INTERFUEL) – focuses on federal fleet management issues and implementation
  • Contact: Jay Wrobel and Cabell Hodge
• The Sustainable Acquisition and Materials Management (SAMM) Working Group – focuses on federal sustainable procurement activities
  • Contact: Adina Torberntnsson
• Interagency Sustainability Working Group (ISWG) – focuses on the sustainable federal buildings
  • Contact: Ken Sandler
• Federal Electronics Stewardship Working Group (FESWG) – focuses on furthering progress on federal electronics stewardship sustainability goals.
  • Contact: Holly Elwood and Cate Berard

• The information on CDP, SBTI and EPA's work on GHG will be an extremely helpful starting point (and more) for a contracting community that knows little about decarbonizing the supply chains that they buy from.
• For the Climate Related Financial Risk EO 14030, awareness of the TCFD report may be helpful to a few who are buying financial services on behalf of FEMA and Treasury, though they are likely already aware. Buying such services is a specialized and potent pivot point for diversifying the risk of contingent liability for adaptation resources.

 

Recent Series That Started the Community of Practice Efforts

Current State

Held September 15, 2021

Register for Replay (free)    View Replay (already registered)

Prior to President Biden's new climate change and sustainability Executive Orders there were policies and programs in place embracing sustainability principles such as fuel economy, green buildings, and pollution reduction. In the first webinar of the series, we cover what is already in place and available to government procurement and review the state of private sector efforts. The discussion will expand on the tyranny of low price over life cycle, or total ownership, cost as sustainment and disposal costs rise.

Future State

Held October 28, 2021

Register for Replay (free)     View Replay (already registered)

Executive Orders on climate change and sustainability join a host of previous ones and more action is expected from the Administration. In the second presentation in this webinar series, we discuss sustainable procurement concepts to help comply and expand on the impact climate change will have on acquisition and contract management professionals for procurement and sustainment. The conversation draws on the first webinar in the series to examine private sector advances in sustainability as models for the U.S. Government.

Optimal State

Held November 18, 2021

Register for Replay (free)     View Replay (already registered)

NCMA's neutral forum and dynamic community can drive and support the evolution of policies, practices, and priorities. In this conversation we will share and collaboratively refine a vision of the optimal state of climate change and sustainability from the acquisition and contract management perspective.