The federal government has barely scratched the surface on green purchasing.
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Greening the federal government’s massive procurement system, as the Biden administration’s sweeping executive orders call for, isn’t just about the environment. Yes, it will help address the climate crisis, but it will also strengthen national security, reduce long-term federal spending, and, ultimately, save lives.
Consider the Department of Defense, which has long recognized the strategic benefit of using solar power in conflict zones like Afghanistan to reduce devastating attacks on fuel convoys. Or the National Park Service, which is using electric-powered shuttles to reduce worsening air pollution at car-choked national parks. Or the Environmental Protection Agency, which achieved $218 million in cost savings in 2018 through its Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program.
Yet, even with such wide-ranging benefits, the federal government has barely scratched the surface on green purchasing, which covers a vast array of products, ranging from high-efficiency heating systems and electric vehicles to low-carbon construction materials.
While many presidents have prioritized green procurement – President Carter installed solar panels on the White House in 1979, only to see them removed seven years later by President Reagan – tangible success has been stymied by bureaucratic red tape.
President Biden’s executive order in December, calling on a “whole-of-government” approach to tackling the climate crisis, aims to reverse this trend. Combining ambitious carbon reduction targets with a climate-focused overhaul of federal procurement regulations, it is an enormous opportunity to leverage the government’s vast purchasing power to accelerate deployment of proven climate solutions while fostering private-sector innovation. The government spent $665 billion on goods and services in 2020.
But what will it take to turn ambitious words into concrete action?
While the president’s executive order sets important guideposts, the Federal Acquisition Regulations Council’s and Buy Clean Task Force’s ongoing efforts to develop new climate-focused procurement rules are potentially transformative. If done right, they will send an important signal to companies and investors that they will be rewarded for innovative climate solutions. Rather than being forced to select lowest cost options, federal agencies may finally have an opportunity to consider the long-term implications of their choices, including direct carbon reductions and social cost benefits.
In January, Ceres submitted formal recommendations to the FAR Council, which is helping lead the procurement overhaul. Among those is requiring large federal suppliers to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and establish targets to achieve science-based, net zero emissions aligned with Paris climate agreement goals.
As the regulatory process grinds forward, many federal agencies are moving ahead with their own green procurement plans.
In the case of the Department of Defense, which has over 200 military bases worldwide, climate solutions have long been embraced. As more U.S. installations are threatened by rising sea levels and insurgent attacks on fossil fuel infrastructure, the military has long recognized how green infrastructure can bolster both climate and national security resilience. An early lesson of this was the Afghanistan war, when the military started using solar power in remote locations to reduce attacks on fuel convoys. More than 3,000 U.S. troops and contractors were killed in fuel supply convoys between 2003 and 2007 in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The U.S. Army’s first climate plan, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, identifies carbon-free electricity, energy storage and electric non-tactical vehicles as immediate priorities. A bigger, more vexing challenge for the military is reducing the carbon footprint of the U.S. Air Force – it accounts for more than half of the military’s energy use – by expanding its use of Sustainable Aviation Fuels or green hydrogen for military jets.
The General Services Administration (GSA), which leases 376 million square feet of space in 9,600 federal buildings across the country, faces its own unique challenges. With only a few dozen of its buildings being LEED sustainable certified, procuring low-carbon building materials is an immediate priority, along with improving energy efficiency and using more renewable energy. Low-carbon asphalt and cement are of particular importance, especially as GSA looks to spend billions to modernize two-dozen entry ports along the U.S border with Canada and Mexico. The GSA’s recent announcement of procurement standards for concrete and asphalt is an encouraging start. The production of cement, used to make concrete, accounts for about 8% of global carbon emissions alone.
Greening the world’s largest supply chain will surely take years, and, no doubt, there will be bumps and legal disputes along the way. We’re already seeing it, in fact, at the U.S. Postal Service as it moves to modernize its massive fleet of mail delivery trucks.
Its first order of 50,000 trucks – 80% of them gasoline powered, the rest electric – was met with lawsuits by 16 states that want a higher percentage of electric vehicles. The Biden administration also wants more EVs, but its hands were tied for over a year because the postal service is an independent agency that is currently being run by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump Administration appointee who couldn’t easily be fired until recent changes were made to the USPS board.
The government has the opportunity now to use its purchasing power to accelerate the climate solutions the world desperately needs, driving U.S. leadership on innovation, strengthening the economy, addressing environmental injustice in the process.
