Title 3—The President
originally required by Executive Order 13101 of September 14, 1998 (Greening the Government Through Waste Prevention, Recycling, and Federal Acquisition) and reinforced by Executive Order 13423 of January 24, 2007 (Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management) and Executive Order 13514);
(ii) include biobased products as part of their procurement review and monitoring program required by section 9002(a) of the 2008 Farm Bill, incorporating data collection and reporting requirements as part of their program evaluation; and
(iii) provide appropriate training on procurement of biobased products for all acquisition personnel including requirements and procurement staff.
(c) The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shall emphasize biobased purchasing in the fiscal year 2012 and 2013 Sustainability/Energy scorecard, which is the periodic evaluation of agency performance on sustainable acquisition pursuant to section 4 of Executive Order 13514.
Sec. 2. Biobased Product Designations. The USDA has already designated 64 categories of biobased products for preferred Federal procurement. Although these categories represent an estimated 9,000 individual products, less than half of the known biobased products are currently included in the preference program. Increasing the number of products subject to the Federal procurement preference will increase procurement of biobased products. Therefore, I direct the Secretary of Agriculture to:
(a) increase both the number of categories of biobased products designated and individual products eligible for preferred purchasing by 50 percent within 1 year of the date of this memorandum; and
(b) establish a web-based process whereby biobased product manufacturers can request USDA to establish a new product category for designation. The USDA shall determine the merit of the request and, if the product category is deemed eligible, propose designation within 180 days of the request.
Sec. 3. Changes in Procurement Mechanisms. Several actions can be taken to facilitate improvement in and compliance with the requirements to purchase biobased products. To achieve these changes, I direct:
(a) the Senior Sustainability Officers and Chief Acquisition Officers of all agencies to randomly sample procurement actions (such as solicitations and awards) to verify that biobased considerations are included as appropriate. Agencies shall include results of these sampling efforts in the Sustainability/Energy scorecard reported to OMB;
(b) the Secretary of Agriculture to work with relevant officials in agencies that have electronic product procurement catalogs to identify and implement solutions to increase the visibility of biobased and other sustainable products;
(c) the Senior Sustainability Officers of all agencies that have established agency-specific product specifications, in coordination with any other appropriate officials, to review and revise all specifications under their control to assure that, wherever possible and appropriate, such specifications require the use of sustainable products, including USDA-designated biobased products, and that any language prohibiting the use of biobased356
