TE_14_Annual_Designated_Biobased_Prod_list.doc

Attachment # 8

Annual Contractor Reporting of Designated Biobased Product Purchases

Section 9002 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, as amended by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, Pub. L. 110-246 (the Farm Bill) requires Federal agencies to give a procurement preference to USDA-designated biobased products. In addition, the legislation requires each procuring agency to report annually on the types and dollar values of biobased products their contractors purchase under service and construction contracts. The statutory provisions are codified at 7 U.S.C. 8102.

On February 21, 2012, President Obama issued the Presidential Memorandum, "Driving Innovation and Creating Jobs in Rural America through Biobased and Sustainable Product Procurement." In accordance with Section 5 of the Memorandum, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council amended the FAR to implement the reporting requirement referenced above. The FAR Council published a Biobased Procurements proposed rule in the Federal Register at 76 FR 41179 and a final rule at 77 FR 23365, implementing reporting requirement in the FAR at FAR 52.223-2, Affirmative Procurement of Biobased Products Under Service and Construction Contracts with an effective date of May 18, 2012. The due date for contractors to report on their biobased products has been extended until December 31, 2012.

Section 5 of the Presidential Memorandum also requires USDA, in consultation with the Chief Acquisition Officers Council, to develop a reporting template to facilitate annual reporting. This website will serve as a temporary reporting solution. A longer term solution is under development for follow-on annual reporting. Note: Contractors should only report biobased products that were purchased under contracts that were awarded between May 18, 2012 and September 30, 2012 and reported to the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG). Other contracts will not pass the system validation test.

Step-By-Step Instructions

1. Please print out this template and use it to gather the information you will need to enter into the reporting tool before proceeding to the reporting tool.

2. At the top of the template you will find information related to your organization, the contract under which you are reporting, and the Federal agency with which you have the contract.

3. As you can see from the template, you will need to determine what biobased products you have purchased under each biobased product heading and the dollar value of those purchases from May 18, 2012 through September 30, 2012.

4. When you go to the reporting tool, you will be asked to fill in the contract number as part of this procedure. If the contract number is not accurate or has not been entered into the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS), you will not be able to proceed further. (See Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for more information.)

5. Enter the requested information into the reporting tool. If you have not purchased any biobased products in a specific category during the May 18th - September 30th reporting period, leave that area blank.

6. Please try to complete the reporting tool in one session. You may exit the webpage up to the point of "submitting," however your data will not be saved. If you are entering data and realize you need another document or entered something incorrectly, you may make changes during your session until you hit "submit."

7. Once data entry is complete and accurate, complete the security box by copying the words you see there into the space indicated.

8. Press the submit button. You will receive a warning when you hit submit "Do you really want to do this?" Once you hit submit, you will not be able to access the reporting tool to edit and make changes. This is a security function.

9. If you have a problem anywhere in the process, you may contact your Contracting Officer or the Environmental Point of Contact as designated by each Federal agency.

10. Finally, before you get started we would ask that you review the FAQs. The information contained there should address questions you may have about the reporting process.

11. You will not be able to proceed to complete the reporting form until you have certified you have read and understand both the Step-by-Step instructions and the FAQs.

Frequently Asked Questions Why do contractors have to report purchases of biobased products? On February 21, 2012, President Obama issued the Presidential Memorandum, "Driving Innovation and Creating Jobs in Rural America through Biobased and Sustainable Product Procurement." In accordance with Section 5 of the Memorandum, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council amended the FAR to implement the reporting requirement referenced above. The FAR Council published a Biobased Procurements proposed rule in the Federal Register at 76 FR 41179 and a final rule at 77 FR 23365, implementing reporting requirement in the FAR at FAR 52.223-2, Affirmative Procurement of Biobased Products Under Service and Construction Contracts with an effective date of May 18, 2012.

Which contractors need to report? Service and construction contractors awarded contracts after May 18, 2012–the effective date of the FAR amendment–where it is anticipated the contract will involve the use of biobased products-should have had a clause inserted into their contracts requiring the reporting of biobased product purchases. Contractors with such clauses in their contracts must submit annual reports.

If a contracting officer modified an existing contract to include the clause, these contractors also required to report on their biobased products. See question 12.

What is the reporting cycle and the due date? Service and construction contractors are required to report biobased product purchases for the government fiscal year (October 1 – September 30). During this first reporting cycle, however, contractors should report biobased product purchases from contracts with an effective date of May 18, 2012 through September 30, 2012.

Contractors were required to report biobased information on October 31st. However, to alleviate a manual collection, USDA developed an online portal which will be operational on October 31st. The reporting due date has been extended until December 31, 2012.

What format should contractors use to report? Contractors should enter information using the reporting tool found on this website. Step-by-step instructions can be found above.

Where is the biobased information going to be reported? Contractor information will be reported into USDA's web site. USDA will provide a report to OFPP and OFPP will submit a report to the appropriate Congressional Committee that requested the report.

How can contractors tell if the products they purchase are biobased? There are several ways to tell if a product is biobased: (1) the product bears a "USDA Certified Biobased Product" label, (2) the product is listed in the BioPreferred catalogue on www.biopreferred.gov, (3) the product is identified as biobased on a government purchasing website (e.g., GSA Advantage), and/or (4) the product label lists renewable ingredients. If contractors believe a particular product may be biobased but these indicators are absent, they may contact product manufacturers to seek help or submit a query to the BioPreferred program e-mail address, biopreferred@usda.gov.

Is the USDA website a long-term reporting solution?No. The USDA website is designed to serve as a short-term mechanism to assist in the annual reporting of biobased products until such time as the long term reporting solution is developed.

What if contractors have already submitted biobased product purchase reports for FY 2012 to the procuring agency? If a contractor has already reported on its biobased product purchases to the procuring agency, in accordance with FAR 52.223-2, that contractor will not have to report again for that period. The procuring agency will submit biobased reports received from contractors directly to USDA, Environmental Management Division.

Should contractors report biobased product purchases in cases where the product in a single container is used for more than one contract? Contractors should report the entire purchase price under the contract where the majority of the product is used.

Are contractors required to submit a report at the contract level under contracts where multiple agencies may place a task order? Contractors should submit one report per contract and indicate the Federal agency that signed the contract under the Federal agency portion of the reporting tool.

What if I encounter problems when I am entering this data? Who do I need to contact? You may contact your Contracting Officer or the Environmental Point of Contact as designated by the Federal agency. The agency will contact USDA, Environmental Management Division, for assistance.

What if my contract or task/delivery order number doesn't pass the validation test? Contractors can contact their procuring contracting officer to confirm that their contract has an award date from May 18, 2012 through September 30, 2012 and was reported in the Federal Data Procurement System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG). Contractors can also search FPDS to see if their contract was reported into FPDS-NG. The FPDS Web site address is www.fpds.gov.

If your contract or task/delivery order has the clause included and you are unable to report into USDA's website on your biobased products, please download the spreadsheet, complete and submit the report to your contracting officer. The contracting officer will submit the biobased reports received from the contractor directly to USDA, Environmental Management Division.

Can procuring agencies get a copy of their biobased reports from USDA? The FAR clause requires the contractor to provide a copy of their report to the CO, so agencies may also get the information that way.

USDA will not automatically provide a report to agencies, but, if requested by the agency, USDA will send agencies the excel spreadsheets that show biobased products reported by their contractors. Agencies can request a report from USDA, Environmental Management Division.

Is this biobased information public? No. USDA website is a public facing website. The information reported into the website will not be made public. However, the contractor is free to publicly report on it biobased purchases.

Will training be provided to help contractors or contracting officers report this information? USDA's biobased reporting portal is a self-explanatory, intuitive reporting tool with step-by-step instructions and frequently asked questions. However, if it is determined that training is necessary, an online tutorial may be developed, at a later date, to assist users.

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I have read the contents of the above FAQ and Step-By-Step Instructions panels.Initiate Report Form

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