DEFINITIONS

Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxics (PBTs) - Toxic chemicals that persist in the environment and increase in concentration through food chains as larger animals consume PBT-laden smaller animals. They transfer rather easily among air, water, and land, and span boundaries of programs, geography, and generations. As a result, PBTs pose risks to human health and ecosystems. They are associated with a range of adverse human health effects, including effects on the nervous system, reproductive and developmental problems, cancer, and genetic impacts. They include heavy metals and chemicals such as mercury, dioxins, and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls).

Postconsumer Recycled Content - Percentage of a product made from materials and byproducts recovered or diverted from the solid waste stream after having completed their usefulness as consumer items and used in place of raw or virgin material. Postconsumer recycled content includes materials (such as paper, bottles, and cans) collected for recycling.

Practicable - Sufficient in performance and available at a reasonable price.

Preconsumer Materials - Recovered materials that were production finished materials, products or by-products that did not reach the consumer for whose use they were intended, and have been diverted from the solid waste stream for the purposes of collection, recycling, and disposition.

Preferred Procurement - Within the U.S. Department of Energy, the purchase of products with attributes specified for purchase by the U.S. Congress.

Preferred Procurement Partnership - Informal team of staff responsible for purchasing preferred products. Within DOE, the responsibility for preferred procurement is spread among multiple offices and within those offices multiple organizations, each with the same need to promote purchase of a preferred product via strategic plans, identifying purchasers and users (green teams), technology transfer via teleconferences, outreach activities, reporting, awards, and technical support for problem solving. The offices comprising the Preferred Procurement Partnership are:

Office of Environment, Safety, and Health (EH)

• Environmentally Preferable and Recycled Content Purchasing Program (Office of Pollution Prevention and Resource Conservation) - Don Lentzen

Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

• Buy Bio Project (Office of the Biomass Program) - Mark Decot
  
  
• Energy/Water Efficient Products (Office of the Federal Energy Management Program) - Joan Glickman
  
  
• Alternative Fuels/Vehicles (Office of the FreedomCar and Vehicle Technology) - Shab Fardanesh
  

Office of Procurement and Assistance Management (ME)

• Procurement (Office of Procurement and Assistance Management Policy) - Richard Langston

Price Preference - A percentage by which offered prices for recycled products are reduced for purposes of bid evaluation. For example, under a 10 percent price preference, if a bid of $1.00 per unit is received for an environmentally preferable product meeting specifications, the bid price will be reduced by $0.10 (10 percent) and evaluated as though it had been $0.90. If this bid results in a contact award, the price actually contracted will be the bid price of $1.00 per unit.

Product Lifecycle - The attributes that affect a product over its life span, including raw material acquisition, manufacturing, distribution, use, maintenance, and ultimate disposal of the product. (Compare with Lifecycle Cost.)

Recovered Materials - Waste materials and by-products that have been recovered or diverted from the solid waste stream.

Recyclable Product - A product that after its intended end use can be diverted from the solid waste stream for use as a raw material in the manufacture of another product.

Recycled Material - Material and byproducts that have been recovered or diverted from solid waste and have been utilized in place of raw or virgin material in manufacturing a product. It is derived from postconsumer recycled materials, manufacturing waste, industrial scrap, agricultural waste, and other waste material, but does not include material or byproducts generated from, and commonly reused within, an original manufacturing process.

Refurbished Product - A product that has been completely disassembled and restored to its original working order while maximizing the reuse of its original materials.

Renewable Materials - Materials made from plant-based feedstock capable of regenerating in less than 200 years such as trees and agricultural products. Rapidly renewable resources, such as grain-based feedstocks, regenerate in fewer than 2 years.

Sustainable - Creating and maintaining conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations.

Sustainable Product/Material - product or material that a life cycle analysis determines is ecological, economical, and equitable.

Teratogen - A substance that adversely affects fetal development.

Upgradeable Product - The ability to increase a product's performance or features without replacing the product.

Virgin Material - Any material occurring in its natural form. Virgin Material is used in the form of raw material in the manufacture of new products.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) - Chemicals that readily evaporate and contribute to the formation of air pollution when released into the atmosphere. Many VOCs are classified as toxic and carcinogenic.

Water Efficient - A product that is in the upper 25 percent of water efficiency for all similar products, or that is at least 10 percent more efficient than the minimum level meeting U.S. Federal government standards.