Biobased Products
The U.S. Department of Energy gives preference to products containing biobased
content along with other environmental attributes. The DOE "Buy Bio" Program is
part of DOE's Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) Program. The goal of
DOE's Buy Bio Program is to help DOE sites recognize the value of biobased products
and transition to them as quickly as possible, especially those designated by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) designates which products are to be
purchased with biobased content. Once USDA "designates an item, the Farm Security
and Rural Investment Act (FSRI) Section 9002 requires that any procuring agency,
when using appropriated Federal funds to procure that item, shall purchase it
with the specified weight of biobased materials (7 CFR 2902).
The FSRI Section 9002 requirement is that 100 percent of the purchases of
the designated products shall meet or exceed the USDA guideline standards unless
written justification is provided that a product is 1) not available competitively
within a reasonable time frame, 2) does not meet appropriate performance
standards, or 3) is only available at an unreasonable price. Within the U.S.
Department of Energy, these justified exceptions are informally referred to
as the CAP: cost, availability, performance. One further justification is
if a product is designated to contain both biobased as well as recycled content
and is not available with both, the recycled content preference takes precedence.
In addition to giving preference to USDA designated biobased products,
DOE encourages the purchase of any biobased product that meets national and
DOE site specifications, especially those whose content displaces petroleum.
This early adopter practice aligns with DOE's mission of energy security.
Each Federal agency and contractor is required to establish a purchasing
program for biobased products. The program must have three components:
- Preference - a policy and specification embedded in the purchasing systems
- Promotion - an initial awareness raising campaign, training, and information
resources
readily available to all staff
- Review and Reporting - an evaluation of the program annually to identify and
overcome obstacles to purchasing biobased products and to report on the purchases
The benefits of purchasing biobased products are:
Energy Security
Reduce U. S. Reliance on imported petroleum
Increase the economics of biorefineries by co-producing valuable
biobased products along with biobased fuel
Environmental
Establish healthier environment for staff
Reduce hazardous materials on site
Reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide that causes global climate change
Economic
Reduce disposal and cleanup costs
Improve economics of U.S. agricultural production
Stimulate economic development in rural areas
This page was last updated on November 17, 2009
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