Prepublication Copy Notice: 

The Assistant Administrator for Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention signed the 

following Federal Register document on November 15, 2013: 

Title: Notice - Draft Guidelines; Product Environmental Performance 

Standards and Ecolabels for Voluntary Use in Federal 

Procurement; Notice of Availability and Request for Comments

FRL: 9394-6 

Docket No.: EPA-HQ-OPPT-2013-0579

This is a prepublication version of the document that EPA is submitting for publication 

in the Federal Register. While the Agency has taken steps to ensure the accuracy of 

this prepublication version of the document, it is not the official version of the 

document for purposes of public comment or judicial review. Please refer to the official 

version of the document that will appear in a forthcoming Federal Register publication, 

which is currently expected to occur within 10 work days of the signature date. 

 

Once the official version of the document publishes in the Federal Register, the 

prepublication version of the document posted on the agency’s internet will be replaced 

with a link to the document that appears in the Federal Register publication. At that 

time, you will also be able to access the on-line docket for this Federal Register

document at http://www.regulations.gov. 

For further information about the docket and, if applicable, instructions for commenting, 

please consult the ADDRESSES section in the front of the Federal Register document. 
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OPPT-2013-0579; FRL-9394-6]

Draft Guidelines; Product Environmental Performance Standards and Ecolabels for 

Voluntary Use in Federal Procurement; Notice of Availability and Request for Comments

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: EPA is announcing for public review and comment draft Guidelines intended to 

provide a transparent, fair, and consistent approach to using non-governmental product 

environmental performance standards and ecolabels in Federal purchasing, consistent with 

Federal standards policy and sustainable acquisition mandates. These draft Guidelines have been 

developed in response to requests via a wide variety of stakeholder engagement channels from 

suppliers, manufacturers, environmental organizations, Federal purchasers, and other 

stakeholders over the last several years. Voluntary guidelines for standards and ecolabels would 

help agencies implement sustainable acquisition requirements of Executive Order 13514 and the 

Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 23.103 which requires 95% of the government’s 

applicable contract actions to be sustainable. Specifically, the Guidelines for standards and 

ecolabels could provide clarity regarding the term “environmentally preferable” for purposes of 

the Executive Order. In addition to seeking input on the draft Guidelines themselves, EPA is 

seeking input on how standards and ecolabels should be assessed for conformance to such 

guidelines. The proposed draft Guidelines and supplementary information can be found in the 

docket and at http://www.epa.gov/epp/draftGuidelines. 

DATES: Comments must be received on or before [insert date 90 days after date of publication 

in the Federal Register].
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ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by docket identification (ID) number EPAHQ-OPPT-2013-0579, by one of the following methods:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 

instructions for submitting comments.

• Mail: Document Control Office (7407M), Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics 

(OPPT), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 

20460-0001.

• Delivery: OPPT Document Control Office (DCO), William Jefferson Clinton (WJC) 

East Bldg., Rm. 6428, 1201 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, DC. ATTN: Docket ID 

Number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2013-0579. The DCO is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through 

Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the DCO is (202) 564-8930. Such 

deliveries are only accepted during the DCO’s normal hours of operation, and special 

arrangements should be made for deliveries of boxed information.

• Instructions: Direct your comments to docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2013-0579. 

EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included in the docket without change and 

may be made available online at http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information 

provided, unless the comment includes information claimed to be Confidential Business 

Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit 

information that you consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through regulations.gov or email. 

The regulations.gov website is an “anonymous access” system, which means EPA will not know 

your identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of your comment. If you 

send an email comment directly to EPA without going through regulations.gov, your email 

address will be automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is placed in the

docket and made available on the Internet. If you submit an electronic comment, EPA 
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recommends that you include your name and other contact information in the body of your 

comment and with any disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to 

technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA may not be able to consider 

your comment. Electronic files should avoid the use of special characters, any form of 

encryption, and be free of any defects or viruses. 

• Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the docket index available at 

http://www.regulations.gov. Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly 

available, e.g., CBI or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other 

material, such as copyrighted material, is not placed on the Internet and will be publicly available 

only in hard copy form. Publicly available docket materials are available in the electronic docket 

at http://www.regulations.gov, or at the OPPT Docket. The OPPT Docket is located in the EPA 

Docket Center (EPA/DC) at Rm. 3334, WJC West Bldg., 1301 Constitution Ave., N.W., 

Washington, DC. The EPA/DC Public Reading Room hours of operation are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 

p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number of the EPA/DC 

Public Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the OPPT Docket is 

(202) 566-0280. Docket visitors are required to show photographic identification, pass through a 

metal detector, and sign the EPA visitor log. All visitor bags are processed through an X-ray 

machine and subject to search. Visitors will be provided an EPA/DC badge that must be visible 

at all times in the building and returned upon departure.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information regarding environmentally 

preferable purchasing, contact: Alison Kinn Bennett, Senior Advisor, Pollution Prevention 

Division (7409M), Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Office of Chemical Safety and 

Pollution Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., 
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Washington, DC 20460-0001; telephone number: (202) 564-8859; email address: 

kinn.alison@epa.gov.

For information regarding standards policy, contact: Mary McKiel, Standards 

Executive, International Staff (7101M), Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, 

Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20460-

0001; telephone number: (202) 564-0532; email address: mckiel.mary@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Does this Action Apply to Me?

This action is directed to the public in general. Although this action may be of particular 

interest to those persons who purchase or provide products and services for Federal agencies, 

developers of standards and ecolabels, and the manufacturers of products, the Agency has not 

attempted to describe all the specific entities that may be affected by this action. If you have any 

questions regarding the applicability of this action to a particular entity, consult the technical 

contact person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

II. Background

A. What Action is the Agency Taking?

EPA is announcing for public review and comment draft Guidelines intended to assist the 

Federal workforce in more consistently utilizing non-governmental product environmental 

performance standards and ecolabels in the Federal procurement process, consistent with Federal

standards policy and sustainable acquisition mandates. 

Federal agencies must comply with the following sustainability-related purchasing 

mandates: section 2(h) of Executive Order 13514 (Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy 

and Economic Performance), section 6002 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 

section 9002 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, The Energy Policy Act,
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section 2(d) of Executive Order 13423 (Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and 

Transportation Management) (72 FR 3919, January 26, 2007), and the FAR, including FAR Part 

23 (Environment, Energy and Water Efficiency, Renewable Energy Technologies, Occupational 

Safety, and Drug-Free Workplace) (see

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/procurement_index_green).

Section 2(h) of Executive Order 13514 states that:

The Head of each Agency shall...advance sustainable acquisition to ensure that 95 

percent of new contract actions including task and delivery orders, for products and services with 

the exception of acquisition of weapon systems, are...energy-efficient (Energy Star or Federal 

Energy Management Program (FEMP) designated), water-efficient, biobased, environmentally 

preferable (e.g., Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) certified), nonozone depleting, contain recycled content, or are non-toxic or less toxic alternatives, where such 

products and services meet agency performance requirements.

In addition, via the “National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995” (Pub.

L. 104-113; hereinafter “the NTTAA”), Congress required Federal agencies to “use technical 

standards that are developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standards bodies, using such 

technical standards as a means to carry out policy objectives or activities,” except when an 

agency determines that such use “is inconsistent with applicable law or otherwise impractical.” 

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-119 (titled “Federal Participation in the 

Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment 

Activities”) reaffirms Federal agency use of non-governmental standards in procurement.

While Federal purchasing policy is clear for the several standards and ecolabels that are 

listed in statute, regulation, or Executive Order, the lack of guidance on using other product 

environmental performance standards and ecolabels often results in an inconsistent approach by 

Federal purchasers and confusion and uncertainty for vendors and manufacturers. 

Therefore, in accordance with Federal obligations under the NTTAA and OMB Circular 

A-119 (see http://www.standards.gov), EPA is requesting comments on draft Guidelines that 
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could be used to select non-governmental product environmental performance standards and 

ecolabels for voluntary use in Federal procurement. Additionally, the Guidelines could provide 

clarity regarding the term “environmentally preferable” for purposes of Executive Order 13514, 

building upon EPA’s “1999 Final Guidance on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing” (see 

http://www.epa.gov/epp/pubs/guidance/finalguidance.htm) which defines “environmentally 

preferable” to mean products or services that “have a lesser or reduced effect on human health 

and the environment when compared with competing products or services that serve the same 

purpose. This comparison may consider raw materials acquisition, production, manufacturing, 

packaging, distribution, reuse, operation, maintenance or disposal of the product or service”.

As envisioned by EPA, guidelines for standards and ecolabels that would be used by the 

Federal government would not be applied to products directly or to government standards and 

ecolabels or to non-governmental standards and ecolabels that are already mandated for 

procurement via statute or Executive Order. Moreover, these draft Guidelines are not intended to

discontinue or diminish procurement of products conforming to government standards and 

ecolabels. Existing mandates and government standards and ecolabels were influential in framing 

the draft Guidelines, especially guidelines regarding the environmental effectiveness of a 

standard’s criteria. These standards and ecolabels were later assessed for conformance with the 

draft Guidelines and found to align in principle (e.g., participatory process, transparency), 

considering the differences in administrative procedures of the government and of standards 

development organizations. 

Rather, EPA envisions that non-governmental standards and ecolabels determined to be 

in conformance with the Guidelines would supplement existing mandates and government 

standards and ecolabels. [For illustration purposes, “product category x” has a recovered content 

minimum of 20% per the EPA Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines (CPG) (section 6002 of 
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the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act). A multi-attribute environmental performance 

standard for “product category x” is determined to conform to the Guidelines. Depending on the 

standard, Federal procurement officials could be informed that either (1) the non-governmental

standard facilitates meeting the mandate (e.g., the standard includes the CPG requirement as a 

prerequisite) or (2) the non-governmental standard addresses important environmental 

considerations, but does not necessarily fully address the CPG requirement, so the standard could 

be specified in addition to the CPG requirement.]

B. How Were These Draft Guidelines Developed?

In 2011 and 2012, EPA and the General Services Administration (GSA) convened 

several listening sessions to solicit input regarding the Federal Government’s role in 

sustainability. A number of sessions were held following the release of the National Academy of 

Sciences report “Sustainability and the U.S. EPA.” Other sessions were held under the auspices 

of the Interagency Workgroup established by GSA per section 13 of Executive Order 13514: 

Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance (74 FR 52117, 

October 8, 2009). 

EPA heard some common themes from suppliers, manufacturers, environmental 

organizations, multi-stakeholder bodies, regulatory partners, and others. Key points included:

(1) the desire for greater clarity in the marketplace regarding standards and ecolabels and (2) the 

opportunity to leverage the Federal Government’s purchasing power toward sustainability goals. 

The Interagency Workgroup developed an initial set of draft Guidelines and contracted 

with Big Room Inc. (developers of www.EcoLabelIndex.com) to test the feasibility and 

appropriateness of the draft Guidelines. Big Room Inc. conducted a survey of a subset of 

government and non-governmental environmental performance standards and ecolabel 
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developers. Based on the results of the study and external stakeholder input, the Interagency 

workgroup revised the draft Guidelines.

C. Authorities

EPA is issuing this notice pursuant to the authority in the Pollution Prevention Act [42 

U.S.C.A. §13103(b)(11)] which requires EPA to “Identify opportunities to use Federal 

procurement to encourage source reduction” and Section 12(d) of the NTTAA, which requires 

Federal agencies to “use technical standards that are developed or adopted by voluntary 

consensus standards bodies, using such technical standards as a means to carry out policy 

objectives or activities.”

III. Draft Guidelines

The draft Guidelines are organized into the following four sections: 

• Section I, “Guidelines for the Process for Developing Standards” addresses the 

procedures used to develop, maintain, and update a product environmental performance standard. 

• Section II, “Guidelines for the Environmental Effectiveness of Standards” addresses the 

criteria in the standard or ecolabel that support the claim of environmental preferability. 

• Section III, “Guidelines for Conformity Assessment” addresses the procedures and 

practices by which products are assessed for conformity to the criteria specified by standards and 

ecolabeling programs. 

• Section IV, “Guidelines for Management of Ecolabeling Programs” addresses the 

organizational and management practices of an ecolabeling program. 

EPA recognizes that the level to which sustainability practices have been incorporated 

varies by industry sector and even from product category to product category. Therefore, a 

single, one-size-fits-all approach to assessing standards and ecolabels would not be appropriate 

or useful. To address differences among sectors, EPA is requesting comment on an approach 
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that provides flexibility. For example, each draft Guideline has been designated either as 

“baseline” or “leadership.” Based on initial analysis, draft “baseline” Guidelines align with 

Federal goals and requirements, are relatively straightforward to evaluate, and are applicable 

across industry sectors. Draft “leadership” Guidelines represent best practices and are currently 

achievable by some standards and ecolabels. 

Another example of the flexibilities EPA has considered arises with respect to the draft 

Guidelines sections addressing Conformity Assessment and Management of Ecolabeling 

Programs. Specifically, there may not be a marketplace need for a second or third-party 

conformity assessment program depending upon, among other factors, the degree of risk 

associated with a product’s nonconformity to the standard. In those cases, a supplier’s selfdeclaration of conformity would suffice. Similarly, there may not be a marketplace need for an 

ecolabel, depending upon the type of product and/or how it is procured. In those cases, the 

Guidelines for Management of Ecolabeling Programs would not apply.

The proposed draft Guidelines and supplementary information can be found at 

http://www.epa.gov/epp/draftGuidelines. 

IV. Pilot Program Under Consideration

In addition to seeking input on the draft Guidelines themselves, EPA is seeking input on 

how standards and ecolabels should be assessed for conformance to the Guidelines if they are 

finalized and implemented. Based on discussions with stakeholders, EPA anticipates that a 

number of organizations may be positioned to respond to the need for assessment of standards 

and ecolabels for conformity with the Guidelines. Taking this into account, EPA is considering a

limited pilot project, assuming sufficient appropriations are available, to test an assessment

approach, especially with respect to Guidelines addressing the “environmental effectiveness” of 

a standard or ecolabel’s criteria. During this pilot, EPA expects that an external entity (or 
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entities) would convene and work with a multi-stakeholder panel (or panels) to develop product 

category-specific programs to assess conformity of standards and ecolabels with the Guidelines. 

The entity (or entities) would then conduct the assessments for selected product categories in a 

manner consistent with the International Organization for Standardization’s Guides on 

conformity assessment, and develop a list of standards and ecolabels that conform to the 

Guidelines. The results from the pilot project would be made publicly available and EPA would 

evaluate the results to inform any future action such as making available a list of conforming 

standards and ecolabels for voluntary use by Federal agencies in procurement activities.

The external entity (or entities) would not perform any inherently governmental functions 

such as procurement policy, procurement decisions, or strategic implementation decisions. 

V. Request for Comments 

EPA is seeking public input on the draft Guidelines and the concept of assessing nongovernmental standards and ecolabels for voluntary use in Federal procurement. Recognizing 

that implementation of these draft Guidelines will call for additional stakeholder engagement and 

assessment processes, EPA also welcomes comment on the overall approach, including the 

potential pilot project. In particular:

1. How might the Guidelines benefit the broader marketplace? 

2. Are there any draft Guidelines that should be removed or modified? Are there gaps in

the draft Guidelines that could be addressed by a new Guideline(s)?

3. Are the designations of “baseline” and “leadership” in the draft Guidelines 

understandable? Can the designations be easily implemented? Do they appropriately reflect 

varying approaches in the marketplace today? 
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4. How should the leadership Guidelines be applied to standards and ecolabels in 

different product categories (e.g., different weightings in an overall conformity assessment 

scheme)? 

5. What processes, approaches, measures, and mechanisms should be used to determine 

conformance with the Guidelines, if they are finalized and implemented? 

6. Under what circumstances and under what authorities, if any, should the Federal 

Government require a particular type of conformity assessment to provide adequate confidence 

that the products have met a particular environmental performance standard or ecolabel? 

7. Are there alternatives to the pilot project that EPA should consider?

8. If EPA were to move forward with a pilot project to test the proposed standards and 

ecolabels assessment approach, which product categories should be prioritized?

9. What challenges need to be addressed/resolved in implementing the proposed 

Guidelines in order to be a transparent, fair, and consistent process?