The purpose of this order is to establish GSA's Green Purchasing Plan (GPP). The GPP includes requirements to promote the purchase of environmentally sustainable products and services. This order requires GSA to incorporate these requirements into daily operations and to work towards increasing and expanding markets for environmentally sustainable products and services.

This order outlines agency-wide guidance for an effective green purchasing plan; and contains a preference program, a program to promote the preference program, and requirements for annual review, monitoring and reporting of the effectiveness of the GPP.

GSA GPP fulfills the green product procurement requirements of various laws (e.g., the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1976 (also known as RCRA), the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (FSRIA), the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT), and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA)), Executive Orders, and Federal Acquisition Regulation. The GSA GPP part of the overall GSA Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan.

Background

Executive Order 13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance, (October 5, 2009) requires the Federal government to demonstrate leadership in sustainable acquisition and foster the market for sustainable technologies and environmentally preferable materials, products, and services. It also requires Federal agencies to ensure that 95 percent of new contract actions, including task and delivery orders, for products and services are energy- efficient, water-efficient, biobased, environmentally preferable, non-ozone depleting, contain recycled content, or are non-toxic or less-toxic alternatives.

Executive Order 13423, Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management (January 24, 2007) requires Federal agencies to include the acquisition of biobased, environmentally preferable, energy-efficient, water-efficient and recycled content products in agency acquisitions of goods and services. It also requires agencies to reduce the quantity of toxic and hazardous chemicals and materials acquired.

Various laws and parts of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) require that agencies purchase environmentally sustainable products and services. The applicable laws and parts of the FAR are mentioned in the relevant sections of this plan.

Implementing Actions

All GSA employees are responsible for complying with the attached GSA Green Purchasing Plan, though the GPP delineates some specific roles and responsibilities.

Each Head of the Contracting Activity (HCA) will develop an implementation plan that, at a minimum, addresses applicable elements of this plan. HCAs shall not delegate implementation of this plan exclusively to contracting functions. For purposes of this plan HCA means the Associate Administrator of the Office of Governmentwide Policy; the Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS); and the Commissioner of the Public Buildings Service (PBS). The Associate Administrator of the Office of Governmentwide Policy serves as the HCA for Central Office contracting activities outside of FAS and PBS.

(excerpt from GSA's Green Purchashing Plan, Stephen R. Leeds and Kathleen M. Turco. To read the entire report, click here)