Government Procurement Collaboratives: Creating and Transforming Markets

Panel: Panel 3: Market Transformation: Innovation, Development and Dissemination

Authors:
Aimee T. McKane, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
Jeffrey P. Harris, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
Nancy Casey-McCabe, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory

Abstract

In the United States, the combined purchasing power of federal, state, and local government has been estimated in excess of 1170 billion ECU ($900 billion). Of this amount, expenditures on energy-consuming equipment and appliances can be estimated at 52-104 billion ECU ($40-$80 billion). This represents a huge potential market for energy-efficient and environmentally-preferred products. Despite legislative and executive mandates that focus on.

energy-efficiency and the environment, government procurement officials frequently have difftculty realizmg this market transforming potential. Studies have shown that procurement officials frequently lack ready access to the type of information required to support changes in purchasing habits that will have market transforming effects. In addition, current trends in ƒ government procurement such as decentrahzation and electronic commerce present both opportunities and challenges for increasing the access of procurement officials to product information with market transforming potential.

This paper-describes several types of program responses at both the federal and state level which are directed toward opportunities presented by current trends m procurement. One of these programs is the Energy-Efficient Procurement Collaborative, a national organization whose purpose is to integrate information concerning energy-efficient and environmentally-preferred equipment into the purchasing practices of federal, state, and local government agencies, and other large purchasers in the private sector.

The Collaborative includes federal and state energy and procurement officials, utility companies, environmental groups, and other non-governmental organizations. First year activities include: creation of a directory of databases of energy-consuming equipment, identification of energy-efficiency levels that meet or exceed Federal Energy Management Program (FFMP) guidelines, development of procurement strategies, and a feasibility study for creation of a nationwide electromc Product Network.