Training

Training

On-Line Training

The Defense Acquisition University offers an on-line Green Procurement Course, CLC 046, Green Procurement. It is available on DAU's continuous learning site at https://learn.dau.mil/html/clc/Clc1.jsp?cl While portions of the course are DoD-specific, it provides the information and examples about green purchasing legal requirements, the FAR provisions, and the components of the Federal green purchasing program that OFEE recommends for green procurement courses. The module takes approximately two hours to complete. It contains an end of module test that must be passed with a 100% score. You will have unlimited attempts to pass the test. Upon completion of this module, you will receive two Continuous Learning Points (CLP). DoD employees will receive an electronic certificate of completion in their ATLAS account and a record of completion entered into their DAU Transcript. Civilian agency employees should receive a course completion certificate from FAI or DAU about two weeks after course completion. If you do not receive one, course completion certificates or copies of transcripts for DAU courses may be requested from the appropriate Help Desk. For FAI request please contact the FAI Help Desk https://www.fai.gov/addtroubleticket.aspx or call (703) 805-2300. For a DAU request, contact the DAU registrar at DSN 655-3003, registrar@dau.mil or you can request a transcript online at http://www.dau.mil/registrar/transcripts.asp.

The General Services Administration provides an excellent web-based training program for users of the SmartPay purchase card. It can be used to meet the requirement that purchase card holders receive green purchasing training. Section 10 of Part III of "GSA SmartPay Purchase Card -- Your Blueprint for Success" discusses purchasing recycled content, biobased, energy efficient, environmentally preferable products, and non-ozone depleting substances, with links to the relevant program web sites.

ENERGY STAR offers a monthly on-line training that demonstrates the benefits and resources of ENERGY STAR Purchasing, and reviews the resources on the procurement section of the Federal Energy Management Program’s (FEMP) Web site. The one-hour live (not recorded) training illustrates the use of product calculators that determine annual and life-cycle cost savings obtained by purchasing ENERGY STAR rather than conventional products. The presentation also identifies downloadable procurement language and ENERGY STAR product specifications. Attendees may register for the on-line presentations through the following link: www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=business.bus_internet_presentations Once at this page, access “Live Web Conferences” or “Creating and Implementing Action Plans”.

Classroom Training
OFEE offers classroom-style green purchasing training to agency contracting, environmental, and facilities staff. The training addresses each component of the Federal green purchasing program, although more in-depth training on purchasing Energy Star, energy efficient, and biobased products is or will be available from EPA, DOE, and USDA, respectively. The OFEE course discusses the legal framework underlying the green purchasing programs, the pertinent Federal Acquisition Regulation provisions, the common myths about green purchasing, the specifics of the green purchasing programs, agency green purchasing examples, and product sources, including mandatory sources. It also provides the URLs for each component of the program. Please note that review of the Powerpoint slides, without the accompanying classroom training, does not qualify as green purchasing training for purposes of the annual reporting requirements and individual agency training requirements.

OFEE also offers a shorter Powerpoint presentation that can be used to provide introductory training to Purchase Card Holders and a shorter presentation that can be used as an Introduction to Green Purchasing. There also is an annotated version of the training created for the 2005 GSA Expo.

OFEE and the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine developed a green purchasing train-the-trainer program, which has been presented to more than 30 agency environmental and procurement staff. The program consists of a PowerPoint presentation and an accompanying script. In addition to addressing the units discussed in OFEE's green purchasing training, it covers they types of training to provide to different audiences, compliance, program implementation, and goals and metrics. OFEE and USACHPPM will offer the train-the-trainer program in the future if there is sufficient interest. Please contact Dana Arnold at arnold.dana@ofee.gov if you would like to arrange for a green purchasing or train-the-trainer presentation.

Other Training Sources
Green purchasing training is available from both public and private sector sources. Following is a non-exclusive list of sources of green purchasing training. Contact these sources to discuss scope of training and costs. In addition, several Federal agencies offer e-training; see the links to Federal agency sites in Related Links.

Dana Arnold, Office of the Federal Environmental Executive, arnold.dana@ofee.gov - buying recycled content products, environmentally preferable purchasing, biobased products, affirmative procurement programs

Pat Rippey and Beth Martin, U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, pat.rippey@apg.amedd.army.mil or beth.martin@apg.amedd.army.mil - buying recycled content products, environmentally preferable purchasing, biobased products, affirmative procurement programs

Richard Langston, U.S. DOE, richard.langston@hq.doe.gov - environmental procurement policy

Linda Mesaros, Mesaros Consulting, linmesaros@aol.com - the legal and FAR requirements, buying recycled content and environmentally preferable products, and affirmative procurement with an emphasis on biobased products

Richard Keller, Maryland Environmental Service, rkell@menv.com - buying recycled content products, recycling contracts, affirmative procurement, environmentally preferable purchasing, waste prevention and recycling

Sandra Cannon, EcoPurchasing Consultants, Inc., cannon@ecopurchasing.com, environmentally preferable purchasing/life cycle purchasing

Kevin Lyons, Interim Director, University Procurement & Contracting, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, klyons@camden.rutgers.edu - environmentally preferable purchasing, affirmative procurement programs, integrating EPP into eProcurement Systems, and Life Cycle Assessment/Costing Training