nited States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Pollution Prevention
and Toxics
(7409)
EPA742-F-97-003
November 1997
www.epa.gov/opptintr/epp
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing In Action
Parking Lot Project Fact Sheet
Paving the Road to Success ?
The Pentagon's parking lots are turning "green" thanks to
an innovative Environmentally Preferable Purchasing pilot
project. The Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly developed a
contract for parking lot repair and maintenance that promotes
the use of products with positive environmental attributes. This
fact sheet briefly describes how DOD and EPA incorporated
environmental criteria into the contract.
The DOD and EPA
team incorporated
environmentally
preferable
purchasing
principles into the
parking lot repair
and maintenance
contract.
Project Overview
In June 1997, DOD awarded a 5-year, $1 million per year contract to
maintain and repair the parking lots and access roads at four Washington,
DC, facilities—the Pentagon, the Military Court of Appeals, the Navy
Annex, and the Hybla Valley Federal Building. In addition to stipulating
that the work must meet price and performance requirements, the contract
also promotes the use of products with positive environmental attributes
by providing opportunities for the contractor to earn a price differential.
In developing the contract, DOD and EPA considered several alter-
native approaches for promoting the use of environmental products.
Initially, the team considered developing an "approved products list" to
be used by contractors. The team realized, however, that it would be
difficult to continually update the list in order to ensure that the most
innovative products and processes are employed. Team members also
determined that they did not have the necessary resources to conduct
product research on every item. Instead, DOD and EPA used publicly
available information from sources such as the Harris Directory,
Thomas Directory, and the National Park Service's Sustainable Design
and Construction Database to identify initial "baseline" environmental
features such as low levels of volatile organic compounds and high per-
centages of recycled content for the products covered under the con-
tract. The DOD and EPA team focused on 20 product categories repre-
senting 90 percent of the materials to be used to repair and maintain the
parking lots. The categories are listed on the back of this fact sheet.
A) Printed on paper that contains at least 20 percent postconsumer fiber.
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Based on the information collected through this
research, the team created category-specific surveys
to gather additional environmental information from
potential suppliers. The information was used to
develop work sheets listing the baseline environmen-
tal attributes for each product category as well as the
performance requirements. The contractor must
submit a work sheet for DOD approval of the envi-
ronmental and performance characteristics for each
product or process that the contractor plans to use.
The contractor is eligible for a 2 percent price
differential for each baseline environmental
attribute included in the products it uses.
Contingent on DOD approval, the vendor also is
eligible to receive a price differential for identifying
and using products and processes with environ-
mental characteristics that exceed or expand upon
the baseline attributes, up to a ceiling of 10 percent
per line item and an overall task order price differ-
ential of 5 percent.
From the start, this innovative maintenance and
repair contract has demonstrated how environ-
mental impact considerations can be included in
procurement decisions. One month after begin-
ning work, the contractor had already identified
several innovative products and a new process that
significantly improve environmental quality while
meeting or exceeding performance requirements.
A company representative stated, "We are really
excited about the project. Incorporating environ-
mentally friendly products is the wave of the future
and should help our future business."
DOD s Product Work Sheets
The following list identifies the 20 products for
which DOD furnished work sheets. The list can
be expanded by DOD or, with DOD's approval,
by the contractor to include any product or service
associated with the parking lot repair and mainte-
nance contract:
- Asphalt Base Course*
- Asphalt Surface Course*
- Traffic Paint—Yellow*
- Traffic Paint—Blue*
- Traffic Paint—Black*
- Traffic Paint—White*
- Traffic Signs—Panels*
- Traffic Signs—Posts*
- Reinforced Concrete Drainage Pipes*
- Drainage Steps*
- Concrete Curing Compounds*
- Silicone Sealant—Class A
- Silicone Sealant—Class B
- Silicone Sealant—Class C
- Hot Poured Asphalt Sealants
- Bituminous Prime and Tack Coats
- Epoxy Bonding Compounds
- Nonreinforced Concrete Drainage Pipes
- Emulsified Asphalt Slurry
- Asphalt Cement
* Indicates that the work sheet identified specific environmen-
tal performance attributes at the time the contract was award-
ed. The contractor can suggest additional attributes for any
product or process used to complete work under the contract.
For Additional Information
Detailed information about this EPP pilot project, including the DOD work sheets, is contained in
the case study Paving the Road to Success (document number EPA742-R-97-007). Copies of this and
other EPP case studies and guidance can be ordered from:
Pollution Prevention Information Clearinghouse (PPIC)
401 M Street, SW. (7409)
Washington, DC 20460
202260-1023
202 260-4659 (fax)
E-mail: ppic@epamail.epa.gov.
For additional information, contact Ruth Heikkinen with EPA's Environmentally Preferable Purchasing
Program at 202 260-1803 or via e-mail at heikkinen.ruth@epamail.epa.gov, or contact Bob Cox of
DOD at 703 693-3765 or Rcox@ccmail.gov.ref.osd.mil.
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