EPA Releases Draft Procurement Guidelines for Product Environmental Performance
They are criteria for assessing private-sector standards and ecolabels, considering factors such as how standards are developed and managed, as well as their environmental effectiveness.
EPA has released draft guidelines to assist in the federal government's procurement process and help agencies identify and purchase greener products, according to a blog post from the agency. It says current mandates include a 95 percent goal for sustainable purchasing, which caused the guidelines to be developed. They're now out for public comments.
Design for the Environment labels, which identify products meeting strict federal standards. Federal buyers have to sort through hundreds of other products with non-governmental or private labels that claim to be safe or environmentally friendly, so the agency sought to simplify the procurement process.
EPA seeks comments about how standards and ecolabels should be assessed and what role private entities could have in that process.