GSA Helps Drive Green Office Supply Savings

The US General Services Administration has announced 21 awards for the third generation Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative for Office Supplies (FSSI OS3), a program intended to help the federal government increase efficiencies and save money while meeting green purchasing requirements.

Twenty of the 21 businesses awarded an OS3 contract are small businesses, with the potential for additional awards pending further review.

The GSA says OS3 will save money for the federal government and increase efficiencies by providing everyday supplies like pens, paper, and printing items from a list of vendors with negotiated low prices. OS3 is expected to provide more than $90 million in annual savings and drive a substantial percentage of office supply purchase to small businesses.

Other benefits include:

• Lowers administrative costs through a streamlined acquisition process and simplified contractual terms.
• Ensures compliance with applicable regulations to include the AbilityOne Program, green purchasing requirements, and the Trade Agreement Act and helps agencies meet green acquisition and socioeconomic procurement goals.
• Fosters markets for green technologies and environmentally preferable products.
• Simplifies purchasing data collection, enhances transparency and helps agencies manage expenditures and measure cost-savings.
• Makes buying easier with standardized product descriptions for more efficient comparison shopping as well as point-of-sale compliance for automatic FSSI discounts for purchase card users.
• Provides further price decreases as the collective OS3 purchases grow across the federal government.

The GSA’s new standards for its federal buildings, released in March, focus more on outcomes, or performance, and less on technology.

The Facilities Standards for the Public Buildings Service, also known as the P100, is a mandatory standard that outlines how facilities will be managed, designed and built to achieve higher performance levels and save energy in the 9,200 buildings the GSA owns and leases across the country. The P100 applies to all new construction projects including additions to existing facilities.

Photo Credit: notepad and fountain pen via Shutterstock