[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 161 (Friday, August 20, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45810-45858]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-21664]



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_______________________________________________________________________

Part VII





Environmental Protection Agency





_______________________________________________________________________



Final Guidance on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing for Executive 
Agencies; Notice

  Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 161 / Friday, August 20, 1999 / 
Notices  

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[OPPTS-00149A; FRL-6095-4]

RIN 2070-AC78


Final Guidance on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing for 
Executive Agencies

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This document announces the availability of a general guidance 
designed to assist Executive agencies in identification and acquisition 
of environmentally preferable products and services. The final guidance 
is in response to section 503 of Executive Order 13101, entitled 
``Greening the Government Through Waste Prevention, Recycling and 
Federal Acquisition'' (63 FR 49641, September 16, 1998), which requires 
EPA to issue guidance to address environmentally preferable purchasing 
by the Federal government. The guidance is designed to assist Executive 
agencies with the implementation of the environmentally preferable 
purchasing provisions of Executive Order 13101 and Section 23.704 of 
the Federal Acquisition Regulations. The implementation of this 
guidance will result in increased purchases by the Federal government 
of products and services which minimize harmful effects on human health 
and the environment.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information contact: Eun-Sook 
Goidel, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Pollution Prevention 
Division, 7409, Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M St., SW., 
Washington, DC 20460, telephone: (202) 260-3296, fax: (202) 260-0178, 
e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Does this Apply to Me?

    You may be potentially affected by this notice if you are an 
Executive agency employee responsible for the acquisition and use of 
products and services. Those who produce and sell products and services 
for use by the Federal government may also find the information in this 
notice to be of interest. If you have any questions regarding the 
applicability of this notice to a particular organization, consult the 
person listed in the ``FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT'' section.

II. How Can I Get Additional Information or Copies of this Document 
or Other Documents?

    For the convenience of the reader, the final guidance is published 
below in its entirety in Unit VII.
    1. Electronically. You may also obtain electronic copies of this 
document and various support documents from the EPA Internet Home Page 
at http://www.epa.gov/. On the Home Page select ``Laws and 
Regulations'' and then look up the entry for this document under the 
``Federal Register--Environmental Documents.'' You can also go directly 
to the ``Federal Register'' listings at http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/. 
Alternatively, you can go to the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing 
program's website: http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/epp.
    2. In person. The Agency has established an official record for 
this action under docket control number OPPTS-00149A. The official 
record consists of the documents specifically referenced in this 
action, any public comments received during an applicable comment 
period, and other information related to this action, including any 
information claimed as confidential business information (CBI). This 
official record includes the documents that are physically located in 
the docket, as well as the documents that are referenced in those 
documents. The public version of the official record does not include 
any information claimed as CBI. The public version of the official 
record, which includes printed, paper versions of any electronic 
comments submitted during an applicable comment period, is available 
for inspection in the TSCA Nonconfidential Information Center, North 
East Mall Rm. B-607, Waterside Mall, 401 M St., SW., Washington, DC. 
The Center is open from noon to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Center is (202) 
260-7099.

III. Introduction

    On September 14, 1998, President Clinton signed Executive Order 
13101, entitled ``Greening the Government through Waste Prevention, 
Recycling and Federal Acquisition.'' Section 503 of this Executive 
Order requires EPA to establish guidance to ``address environmentally 
preferable purchasing.''
    The guidance that is being made available today is designed to help 
Executive agencies meet their obligations under Executive Order 13101 
to identify and purchase environmentally preferable products and 
services. ``Environmentally preferable'' is defined in section 201 of 
the Executive Order to mean products or services that have a ``lesser 
or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared 
with competing products or services that serve the same purpose.'' The 
guidance is intended to draw on the extensive procurement experience of 
the Executive agencies and on the environmental expertise of EPA and 
others both within and outside of the government. It provides a broad 
decision-making framework for environmentally preferable purchasing and 
is a first step to help Executive agencies systematically integrate 
environmental preferability into the Federal government's buying 
decisions.

IV. Background

    This Final Guidance on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing is 
based on EPA's September 1995 Proposed Guidance on the Acquisition of 
Environmentally Preferable Products and Service and the comments 
received on that proposal. EPA announced the availability of and sought 
comment on the Proposed Guidance on the Acquisition of Environmentally 
Preferable Products and Service on September 29, 1995 (60 FR 50721) 
(FRL-4760-5). The process EPA used to develop the proposed guidance is 
described in that Federal Register notice. In addition, lessons and 
insights from early pilot projects have guided the development of the 
Final Guidance.
    Since 1995, a variety of things have occurred that will directly 
affect the Federal government's environmentally preferable purchasing 
practices. Foremost are the 1997 revisions to the Federal Acquisition 
Regulations that incorporate policies for the acquisition of 
environmentally preferable and energy-efficient products and services. 
These changes require the consideration of environmental factors in all 
aspects of Federal acquisition, including acquisition planning (part 
7), conducting market surveys (part 10), describing an agency's needs 
(part 11), evaluating and selecting a vendor (parts 14 and 15), and 
contract administration (part 42), as well as other provisions.
    Another milestone is the 1996 enactment of the National Technology 
Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (NTTAA) which requires the Federal 
government to use consensus-based industry standards when available 
rather than creating a government-unique standard.
    The acquisition streamlining reform initiatives have also brought 
many changes to the way the Federal government purchases products and

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services. One example is increased decentralization of the purchasing 
decision, best exemplified by the meteoric increase in credit card use 
by Federal agency personnel. The number of card holders increased from 
10,000 in 1989 to 250,000 in 1996 with the dollar volume increasing 
from $460,000 to close to $3 billion during the same time period. This 
trend highlights the importance of reaching out to those beyond the 
acquisition community with the environmentally preferable purchasing 
message.
    Another trend is the increased interest at all levels of 
government--local, state and foreign--in using the government's 
purchasing power as a policy tool to drive environmental improvement. 
This trend will likely accelerate the anticipated spill-over effect of 
environmentally preferable purchasing practices. Beyond the 
governments' interest, other large institutional purchasers--non-
profits and individual companies--are also beginning to include 
environmental factors in their buying decisions.

V. Lessions Learned

    In the years since the Proposed Guidance was first issued, a number 
of pilot projects were initiated to demonstrate how EPA's Proposed 
Guidance could be applied to specific product categories. Though 
limited in number, these projects have provided important insights into 
the development of the Final Guidance as well as the direction of EPA's 
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program.
    First, it is important to have the participation of both the 
environmental and the acquisition/procurement personnel. The 
acquisition of environmentally preferable products and services in the 
Federal government context involves both defining what is 
environmentally preferable for a given product or service and ensuring 
that the procurement process encourages the purchases of these 
products. Innovative approaches that leverage the expertise of the 
environmental and procurement experts is essential to accomplishing 
these tasks and institutionalizing environmentally preferable 
purchasing practices.
    Second, on a very positive note, early pilots have shown that 
vendors understand that providing a broad range of environmental 
information is an important part of doing business with the government 
and that it can serve as a competitive advantage. Generally speaking, 
however, information about environmental performance of products and 
services, particularly along the various life cycle stages, and easy-
to-use tools to assess environmental performance remain scarce, 
limiting the wide-spread adoption of environmentally preferable 
purchasing. This is likely to change as Executive agencies begin to 
implement the changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulations and as 
agencies begin to use information and technical expertise of non-
governmental entities.
    Lastly, early pilots indicate that there is not a single, ``one 
size fits all,'' approach to incorporate environmental preferability 
into Federal acquisition. Using common sense, we need to tailor our 
approach and level of analysis to fit the complexity of the product and 
service categories being purchased.
    Much progress has been made since Executive Order 12873 was issued 
in October 1993. A number of pilot projects have been implemented by 
key purchasing agencies that have provided valuable insights and 
lessons on ways to integrate environmental considerations into the 
Federal procurement process. These pilots have helped to identify gaps 
in information and tools. Future pilots will be instrumental in guiding 
both EPA's and other Executive agencies' efforts in environmentally 
preferable purchasing. As EPA and the other agencies move forward, the 
debate about the appropriate approaches and goals will likely continue. 
This is desirable given the dynamic nature of the issue. Based on 
feedback from all stakeholders, EPA will continue to test a variety of 
approaches and develop and refine tools to allow agencies to more 
readily apply the concepts of environmental preferability in government 
purchasing decisions.

VI. Major Changes to the Guidance

    This section describes some of the key changes made to the 1995 
Proposed Guidance. EPA has also prepared a more detailed Response to 
Comment document, which has been included in the public record for this 
guidance.

A. Guidance Framework

    The Guidance framework remains largely unchanged and includes an 
introduction (Section I), intended audience (Section II), approach 
(Section III), a set of guiding principles (Section IV), suggested 
steps for Executive agency implementation (Section V), and appendices 
(Section VII). A new section, Section VI, lists available resources and 
tools related to environmentally preferable purchasing.

B. Guiding Principles

    A number of changes have been made to the guiding principles, 
including the addition of a new principle and the merging of a number 
of principles. As a result, the Final Guidance now has five, rather 
than seven, guiding principles. Taken together, the principles are 
intended to provide a broad guide to help Executive agency purchasers 
address environmental preferability in acquisition of products and 
services. Specifically, the following changes have been made:
    1. A new principle on product safety, price, environmental 
considerations, performance and availability has been added as 
Principle #1 and reads:

    Environmental considerations should become part of normal 
purchasing practice consistent with such traditional factors as 
product safety, price, performance, and availability.

    This was in response to a number of comments requesting more 
emphasis be placed on the point that the addition of environment is not 
in lieu of traditional purchasing factors. Although the original 
proposal noted this, the addition of this new principle should send a 
clearer message on the importance of putting environmental 
considerations in the context of other purchasing factors.

    2. The guiding principles on life cycle and multiple attributes 
have been collapsed into one principle (Principle #3) and reads:

    A product's or service's environmental preferability is a 
function of multiple attributes from a life cycle perspective.

    This change is based on comments and also EPA's strong belief that 
the two concepts are integral in determining environmental 
preferability. The discussion that follows the guiding principle has 
also been modified to reflect that although the determination of 
environmental preferability should be based on multiple attributes, the 
purchasing decision may at times be based on a single attribute.
    3. The guiding principles on impacts and local conditions have been 
modified and collapsed into one principle (Principle #4) and reads:

    Determining environmental preferability may involve comparing 
environmental impacts. In comparing environmental impacts, Federal 
agencies should consider: the reversibility and geographic scale of 
the environmental impacts, the degree of difference among competing 
products or services, and the overriding importance of protecting 
human health.

    This change was made to remove the perceived conflict between the 
two original principles and to provide purchasers with more guidance on 
how to assess relative impacts. The original principles were intended 
to convey that, in general, global and irreversible

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environmental impacts should be given greater weight in determining 
preferability than local and rapidly reversible environmental impacts. 
However, we also recognize that there may be situations in which there 
are unique mitigating circumstances locally, and in those cases, the 
purchaser can make the judgement that the local conditions and impacts 
should be given priority.
    4. The principles on competition and product attribute have been 
revised and a new principle (Principle #5) on environmental information 
has been added. It reads:

    Comprehensive, accurate and meaningful information about the 
environmental performance of products or services is necessary in 
order to determine environmental preferability.

    This revision was based on lessons from the pilots and reflects the 
importance of having relevant environmental information for determining 
environmental preferability. The discussion related to competition 
which originally appeared under guiding Principle #6 is now captured 
under guiding Principle #1.

C. Federal Agency Implementation

    A number of changes have been made to facilitate Executive agency 
implementation of environmentally preferable purchasing, including:
    1. EPA recommends that Executive agencies look to EPA's list of the 
top 20 prioritized product categories to focus their pilot projects. 
The description of this list is included in Section VI of the Final 
Guidance and the complete list is available on EPA's Environmentally 
Preferable Purchasing Program's website: www.epa.gov/opptintr. The 
prioritized list was developed pursuant to Section 503(a) of Executive 
Order 13101 which states that EPA's guidance ``should be. . .targeted 
towards products and services that have the most effect.''
    2. In implementing pilot projects, EPA recommends, pursuant to 
section 503(b)(2) of Executive Order 13101, that agencies use all of 
the options available to determine environmentally preferable 
attributes of products and services in pilot projects, including the 
use of technical expertise of non-governmental entities such as 
labeling, certification, or standards developing organizations. 
Additional guidance on the use of these organizations is elaborated in 
the Office of Federal Environmental Executive and EPA's April 1998 
policy letter. The full text of this policy letter has been added as 
Appendix E.
    3. EPA recommends that agencies document their pilot efforts. In 
order to facilitate this, the Final Guidance includes a sample case 
study template (Appendix E).

D. Appendices

    A number of changes have been made to this section, including:
    1. The addition of three new items:
    i. Sample Policy Directive (Appendix C).
    ii. Full Text of April 1998 Policy Letter on Non-governmental 
Entities (Appendix D).
    iii. Sample Case Study Template (Appendix E).
    2. The deletion of the original Appendix D, ``A Summary of the 
Federal Trade Commission's Guides to the Use of Environmental Marketing 
Claims.'' The Guides were updated in May 1998 and the information on 
how to access the most recent Guides is now included in Section VI--
Resources.

VII. Final Guidance on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing for 
Executive Agencies

    For the convenience of the reader, the final guidance is published 
below in its entirety.
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List of Subjects

    Environmental protection.
    Dated: August 13, 1999.
Carol M. Browner,
Administrator.

[FR Doc. 99-21664 Filed 8-19-99; 8:45 am]
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