EPA Recommendations of Specifications, Standards, and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing

IEc provided technical and assessment support to EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics to test and implement EPA’s Guidelines for Ecolabels and Standards in Federal Purchasing, the federal government’s first guidance to assist buyers in identifying high quality third-party ecolabels and environmental standards. This high profile anti-greenwashing effort involved coordination and collaboration with a range of stakeholders, and drew extensively on IEc’s skills in technical research and analysis, management of multi-stakeholder processes, evaluation, and communications. IEc helped to develop the detailed assessment criteria, procedures, and project reports. IEc also assessed standards and labels from over 50 participating organizations. Based on these assessments, EPA developed product category-specific recommendations for environmental standards and ecolabels.