Contracting FAQs

The statement of work describes the acquisition and is an excellent opportunity to emphasize the efficiency requirement. Although the statement of work and other descriptive sections do not typically contain detailed product information, you can communicate to offerors that energy efficiency is a priority for the acquisition. They will know instantly upon reading the description that the energy efficiency requirement applies.

Vendors look to the technical specifications to understand what the individual product requirements are for a given project. Technical specifications will typically include a wide range of characteristics including size, color, and various performance requirements. It is important to include efficiency requirements in the technical specifications section so that they are tied to other product characteristics. In addition, putting in a table of the current efficiency standards gives vendors the opportunity to provide products that may exceed the stated efficiency requirements.

Requesting certain items from vendors will allow you to better evaluate offers for compliance with efficiency requirements. Requiring vendors to submit manufacturer cut sheets (technical descriptions generated by the manufacturer that include efficiency information) for individual products will allow your organization to confirm that they meet efficiency requirements. In addition, providing energy cost information in the solicitation will allow vendors to demonstrate the cost savings associated with efficient products.

The evaluation criteria section of the solicitation outlines the factors you will consider in awarding the contract. First, it’s critical to reiterate to vendors that offers that include products that do not meet the outlined efficiency requirements will not be considered and that you will only evaluate compliant offers. You can verify by matching the vendor-provided cut sheets to the list of covered product categories or associated efficiency information to determine if they are compliant. If a product is covered by ENERGY STAR^®, an ENERGY STAR^® certified product will be marked with the ENERGY STAR^® label. If the product has efficiency requirements set by FEMP, confirm that the information in the cut sheet meets these standards. If a product is EPEAT, verify the model number on the online EPEAT product registry; make sure the product is rated at the EPEAT tier that you’ve specified.

Another option when evaluating compliant offers is to consider offers based on the lifecycle cost of the items provided. Evaluating solicitations based on lifecycle cost allows vendors to offer packages that may have higher upfront costs but will ultimately save your agency money.

Requiring that the vendor provides reporting on the quantity, type, and dollar amount of green products the vendor supplies to your organization can save your organization the trouble of having to track that information internally. Regular reports for recurring purchases or services will help your organization track its progress towards its sustainable purchasing goals.

Note that this section is optional given that a reporting requirement might shrink the pool of vendors able to respond to the bid, particularly smaller businesses that might not readily be capable of sophisticated green reporting.