On November 27, 2013, EPA issued for public comment Draft Guidelines for Product Environmental Performance Standards and Ecolabels for Voluntary Use in Federal Procurement. As stated in the Federal Register notice, EPA's goal in developing these Guidelines is to create a "transparent, fair, and consistent approach to selecting product environmental performance standards and ecolabels to support the Agency's mission and federal sustainable acquisition mandates."

The fundamental aim of the Guidelines is to establish a cross-sector framework to be used in recognizing non-governmental environmental standards (and consequently, environmentally preferable products meeting these standards) for use in federal procurement. The Guidelines provide a foundation for making these determinations, while providing flexibility to accommodate the variety of approaches to and types of standards and ecolabels that exist in the marketplace today.

All public comments submitted on the Guideline are accessible via the docket.