Using Standards to Procure Environmentally Preferable Products and Services

EPA’s Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) Program helps the U.S. federal government harness private sector innovation by utilizing marketplace standards and ecolabels to identify and procure environmentally preferable products and services. In turn, the program leverages federal purchasing power to prevent pollution, realize lifecycle cost savings, and increase U.S. industry competitiveness. EPA currently recommends 41 private sector standards and ecolabels in 22 product categories utilized by the federal government.

2018 Status Update

An exploratory analysis completed in FY2018 estimates that the value of time savings enjoyed by federal purchasers from utilizing the recommendations to meet their Agency’s sustainability objectives is between $3.7 million (at the lowest end) to $16.2 million (at the highest end) annually. In addition, according to an FY2018 analysis conducted by the Green Electronics Council, manager of EPEAT - one of the EPA recommended ecolabels, “Over their lifetime, the 1.12 billion EPEAT-registered electronics purchased globally since 2006 will deliver significant environmental benefits. Compared to products not meeting EPEAT criteria, these electronics will result in the reduction of 38.8 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses, elimination of 670,484 metric tons of hazardous waste, and will reduce solid waste by the equivalent of 291,913 U.S. households’ annual waste.” EPEAT-registered products sold from 2012-2015 have resulted in a cost savings of $14 billion, the Council said.

2016 Status Update

The EPP Program issued Recommendations of Specifications, Standards, and Ecolabels for use in federal procurement based on learnings from a multi-year pilot that included independent assessment using stakeholder-developed guidelines (now known as the Framework).