green products | The Contracting Education Academy

March 30, 2011 By AMK

GSA plans BPAs with green IT in mind

The General Services Administration’s IT Commodity Division is gathering input from industry as it considers the possibility of several blanket purchase agreements (BPAs) for buying a variety of leading IT products.

The BPAs, which could last between three and five years, would include IT products and related services, such as hardware, laptop PCs, smart phones, maintenance and product training, among others, according to an new information request. GSA officials are expecting discounts by volume sales and the latest technology through GSA’s IT 70 Multiple Award Schedule.

GSA plans to issue a request for quotes in April.

The Washington Management Group reported the request for information in today’s Wednesday Weekly newsletter.

Along with the lower prices for buying more, GSA officials want contractors to be working to lower their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, to have no impact on the environment, and to promote the agency’s sustainability initiatives. The green requirements are part of GSA Administrator Martha Johnson’s main focus since taking the position.

GSA has said it plans to “make and move markets” by emphasizing green products and procurements.

In the request for information, GSA asks whether a company has done a comprehensive GHG emissions inventory as well as its goals for reducing GHG emissions and making a zero environmental footprint. It also asks about IT product sustainability efforts or achievements.

Since 2010, agency officials have wanted more information from companies on their GHG emissions and how those emissions are measured. They have been planning to determine the benefits and challenges for companies to make inventories and disclose emissions data in a registry.

GSA’s sustainability initiatives are about not wasting anything and using resources efficiently, as much as they are about protecting the environment, Johnson said in a keynote address at GSA’s Interagency Resources Management Conference March 15.

In its BPA research, GSA officials are also pushing contractors to meet hard-and-fast deadlines and they want real-time tracking of their orders on company websites.

“A goal of this initiative is to reduce both cost and delivery time for existing and emerging technology,” the information request states.

About the Author: Matthew Weigelt is acquisition editor for Federal Computer Week. Published Mar. 23, 2011 at http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/03/23/it-commodity-bpa-with-environmental-concerns.aspx?s=wtdaily_250311.

September 10, 2010 By AMK

GSA plans for ‘sustainability acquisitions’

In fiscal 2011, the General Services Administration intends to enter nearly all of its contracts with a requirement that companies supply or use environmentally preferred products and services, according to a new sustainability report released Sept. 9.

GSA wants 95 percent of its new procurements to have the sustainability requirement by then. Officials will look for products that contain recycled content, are energy and water efficient, bio-based, or won’t deplete the ozone, the report states.

In addition, by the end of October, officials plan to issue an updated procurement plan to ensure that designated products and services are included in all relevant acquisitions. They then aim to phase it in as the government further defines those products and services.

GSA says the plan will clearly define what constitutes a “sustainable acquisition” based on existing regulations and standards and will provide guidance on incorporating them into all purchases.

GSA has more targets under its new strategy to decrease its environmental footprint. By March, GSA wants “green” products to have icons on its GSA Advantage website, where agencies can buy from GSA’s Multiple Award Schedules contracts. And by next September, officials plan to update the unique codes for products and services in order to track whether agencies are buying with the environment in mind.

The procurement agency’s overarching plan is to use its buying power to change the market and what products and services companies offer the government. “GSA will eliminate its impact on the natural environment and use its governmentwide influence to reduce the environmental impact of the federal government,” officials wrote in the sustainability report.

In fiscal 2009, GSA made $62 billion in purchases, representing more than 11 percent of the government’s total procurement spending, and as the agency’s senior sustainability officer, Stephen Leeds, said in July, GSA plans to “make and move markets.”

In light of what Leeds said, GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service will work with the top 200 federal contractors that participated in a survey on greenhouse gas emissions to determine how they report and manage their emissions.

By next September, GSA will have a strategy to offer companies incentives for cataloging and then disclosing their emissions data, the report states.

As for information technology and sustainability, GSA says it plans to consolidate printers and servers, and recycle unwanted IT products. Officials also will move ahead with consolidating data centers and reduce their power usage through intelligent management of the centers. By 2013, all agency-operated data centers will be at least 40 percent virtualized.

When it comes to data centers, the report notes that the major challenge is that more than half of them are run by the private sector and are not under GSA’s environmental control.

— by Matthew Weigelt – Sept. 10, 2010 – Federal Computer Week

April 28, 2010 By AMK

GSA wants $24.9M for acquisition workforce

The administrator of the General Services Administration today told a House appropriations subcommittee that her agency needs $675 million for fiscal 2011, an $80 million increase from last year, to carry out the Obama administration’s governmentwide programs.

GSA Administrator Martha Johnson requested $24.9 million for the Federal Acquisition Workforce Initiatives Fund, a new appropriation, she told the House Appropriations Committee’s Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee. The new fund seeks to improve federal contracting by spending on the civilian acquisition workforce.

The fund would go for efforts to fill gaps in developing the acquisition workforce and would support the increases in the workforce other agencies requested in the president’s fiscal 2011 budget proposal, Johnson testified.

GSA also asked for an increase of $25.5 million to the governmentwide policy appropriation. GSA plans to modernize the Integrated Acquisition Environment and other governmentwide information systems. Johnson said that work would improve acquisition processes and reduce operating costs by moving acquisition systems to a common platform.

In addition, GSA’s request for the Federal Buildings Fund would increase total budget authority by $25 million, Johnson said.

The largest increase from last year though is for the Office of Governmentwide Policy’s operations, including its Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings, Johnson said.

The $25 million increase would be primarily made up of the $21 million increase for modernization and upgrades to governmentwide information systems to improve reliability and transparency. Johnson said GSA plans to use the money to increase how much the systems can handle, improve data quality, and decrease operating costs in the future for multiple federal systems.

GSA has proposed $321 million for the traditional operating costs for its Office of Governmentwide Policy, its many governmentwide programs, its Office of Inspector General, the Electronic Government Fund, the pensions and office staffs of former presidents, and the Federal Citizen Services Fund, Johnson said.

Overall, GSA’s budget includes a total of $675 million in net budget authority, 2.8 percent of the agency’s total planned obligations of $24 billion, Johnson said.

The majority of GSA’s funding is provided through reimbursements from federal customer agencies, for purchases of goods and services or as rent paid to the government’s landlord.

“Your approval of GSA’s budget request for fiscal 2011 is a critical step toward helping GSA to achieve our mutual goals of economic recovery, sustainability and open government,” Johnson testified.

— by Matthew Weigelt – Apr. 28, 2010 – Federal Computer Week

Search this Website