On November 16th, GSA announced a new program called the GreenGov Supply Chain Partnership and Small Business Pilot. This program was designed to create a greener, more efficient supply chain through a voluntary collaboration between the federal government and its suppliers. The announcement was made at a supply chain summit in Chicago hosted by Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Martha Johnson, GSA Administrator.
The GreenGov Supply Chain Partnership is a pilot program to promote clean energy and cut waste and pollution in the federal supply chain using greenhouse gas emissions as a measurement. Federal suppliers that volunteer to join will measure and report their organization’s greenhouse gas emissions. These initial volunteers will help GSA develop a phased, incentive-based approach to developing contracting advantages to companies that track and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. Small businesses that have enrolled in the pilot will receive technical assistance through GSA to measure, report, and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as a part of the effort.
These initial reports from the volunteers will be used to help GSA design an incentive-based approach to developing contracting advantages for companies that share our sustainability goals. There are currently 60 small businesses in the pilot program that will explore the benefits and challenges of measuring greenhouse gas emissions with the goal of developing straightforward incentives that make it easy for small and emerging businesses to work with the GreenGov program. The GreenGov Supply Chain Partnership and Small Business Pilot Program were developed by GSA in response to President Obama’s Executive Order 13514, which called on GSA to lead the effort to make recommendations for measuring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the federal supply chain.
“The federal government is the single largest energy consumer in the U.S. economy and purchases more than $500 billion in goods and services every year,” commented Chair Sutley. “It is our responsibility to lead by example to improve efficiency, eliminate waste, and promote clean energy in our supply chain.”