AbilityOne and the Environment
The AbilityOne Program understands the problems faced by federal contracting and acquisition professionals, as well as purchase card holders, when dealing with what appear to be conflicting mandatory purchasing requirements. While AbilityOne is a mandatory source of supply, there are also legal mandates to purchase recycled content products under the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) section 6002, and other environmentally preferable and biobased requirements spelled out in Executive Order 13101: "Greening the government through Waste Prevention, Recycling and Federal Acquisition."
Instead of being an obstacle to effective environmental procurement, AbilityOne decided to become a solution. In so doing, the AbilityOne Program embarked on a number of initiatives designed to ensure that, to the highest degree possible, AbilityOne products and services are our customers' choice when it comes to meeting the environmentally desirable criteria, qualities and attributes they demand. For the AbilityOne Program, the federal environmental initiative is yet another vehicle to create and maintain jobs for individuals who are blind or have other severe disabilities. In supporting green initiatives, AbilityOne-participating nonprofit agencies and their employees play a key role in helping the government accomplish its mission of creating cleaner, healthier, safer workplaces for Federal employees and contractors. It makes good sense, good business and good government.
For more information about AbilityOne's Environmental initiative, please contact Joan Smith at jsmith@abilityone.gov
