XZ003-XZ996-3_FINAL_w.Amendment01.docx

Solicitation #XZ003-XZ996-3 Amendment 01 FAS, Office of Acquisition Management Program Analysis Division Request for Proposal #XZ003-XZ996-3 Screening Life Cycle Analysis of High Impact Industry Sectors January 11, 2013 Contents

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Federal Acquisition Regulation Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-62.

Solicitation number #XZ003-XZ996-3 is issued as a Request for Proposals (RFP). As a result of this solicitation, GSA anticipates award of a firm-fixed price contract for the three required sectors as detailed below. Three additional sectors are optional and if awarded will be on a firm-fixed price basis as well. This acquisition is a total set-aside for small businesses. The applicable NAICS code is 541620 Environmental Consulting Services and the applicable size standard is $14 million.

Please note, in order to be considered for award, all Offerors shall be registered and active in the System for Award Management (SAM) at www.sam.gov.

1.2 Background

Executive Order (E.O.) 13514, “Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance”, represents a new level of Federal effort in operating sustainably. It builds on previous Executive Orders (e.g., E.O. 13423), legislation (e.g., Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 and the Energy Policy Act of 2005), and an increased public understanding of sustainability issues, to require a new level of commitment within the Federal sector regarding the sustainability issues surrounding Federal programs and their operations.

The General Services Administration (GSA) responded to E.O. 13514 by setting the following priorities in its FY 2010-2015 Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan:

· GSA will Green its Supply Chain

· GSA will Eliminate Waste in its Operations and Activities

· GSA will Use its Influence to Reduce the Environmental Impact of the Federal Government GSA has engaged in numerous activities to achieve the goals above. Specific examples of such activities include, but are not limited to the following:

· Greening the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program: GSA has added a requirement to the MAS program that selected products offered through the MAS program must meet requirements of certain environmental ecolabel programs (such as ENERGY STAR®) in order to be awarded.

· The Carbon Footprint Tool: GSA has developed a tool that allows federal agencies to inventory, track, and manage greenhouse gas emissions.

· Environment standards and eco-labels: GSA is coordinating with other federal agencies to develop guidelines for selecting environmentally sustainable product standards for use in the Federal procurement process.

In 2011, GSA procured a study of the environmental impacts associated with products and services procured by the Federal Government in FY 2011. The primary output of the study was a ranking of industry sectors by their environmental impacts based on environmentally-extended input output analysis and other methods. The study has enabled GSA to prioritize its sustainability activities and identify sectors with the greatest overall impact on its supply chain. The report from this study is provided in Attachment I.

While the prioritization is an important first step, additional analysis is required to differentiate between products and services during the procurement process based on environmental impacts across the life cycle. For example, what are the products and services of concern within the sector? Once these key product and services are identified, what approaches can GSA take to mitigate their impacts through its procurement activities? Can environmentally-extended input-output life cycle analysis (IO LCA) supplemented with other methods be used to green GSA’s supply chain?

The objectives of this contract action are to:

· identify opportunities for improving the environmental profile of GSA expenditures,

· provide a quantitative basis for decision-making related to these opportunities, and

· demonstrate and provide guidance for the application of streamlined life cycle assessment (LCA) approaches to environmental hotspots analysis of purchasing-related decisions.

2.0 Statement of Work

To accomplish the objectives of this contact action, the Contractor shall conduct a streamlined life cycle analysis for GSA FY2011 expenditures within selected sectors to improve agency environmental decision making at the procurement and operational level. The Contractor shall provide technical support to apply an environmentally-extended input-output life cycle analysis (IO-LCA) model and to transform other necessary data to produce quantitative results. The Contractor shall primarily utilize an IO-LCA framework but may supplement the analysis with data describing additional detail within sectors, the use phase, and the end-of-life phase based on literature review and process LCA datasets where their inclusion improves the IO-LCA. The Contractor shall recommend approaches that GSA can use to differentiate between products and services based on the identified environmental impacts.

The Contractor shall analyze GSA FY 2011 expenditures within the following sectors:

· Management Consulting Services (541610)

· Office Furniture Manufacturing (33721A)

· Waste Management and Remediation Services (562000)

Note that the analysis shall focus on GSA expenditures. The Contractor shall perform a series of Tasks related to each of these sectors, however each of these sectors has unique features which should be considered in conducting the assessment. The Contractor shall tailor the work conducted under each Task to the sector-specific concerns and interests with respect to GSA.

2.1 GSA Perspective on Sectors

Management Consulting Services (541610) Management consulting services account for a significant portion of the Federal expenditure and likely encompasses a wide range of activities and firm size. Current federal sustainable purchasing policies for professional service contracts are fairly limited in scope, requiring Contractors to deliver, acquire or furnish green products designated in the FAR (e.g., ENERGY STAR®, BioPreferred®). The primary objectives of studying this sector are to gain an understanding of key differences between providers and to understand opportunities for improving environmental performance. Because of the wide range of services provided by this sector, it is useful to understand environmental aspects and their potential relationship to performance measures. The determination of an appropriate functional unit for this sector should be considered. It is also the intention that lessons learned through an analysis of this specific sector could be generalized to provide broad guidance related to the environmental aspects associated with service sector expenditures.

Office Furniture Manufacturing (33721A) The office furniture manufacturing sector has been active in the development and application of environmental product declarations and ecolabels. A key activity related to this sector will be to provide an understanding of the relationship between the streamlined LCA results and the aspects addressed by existing certifications in order to provide clear guidance for GSA.

Section 2.3 Task 3 involves addressing the service provided by office furniture from an operations perspective. While the opportunities for servicizing[footnoteRef:1] furniture may appear limited, it is of interest to consider the implications of practices such as telework and office space hoteling on the system-wide environmental outcomes associated with furniture use. [1: A detailed overview of servicizing is available: http://www.epa.gov/wastes/conserve/tools/stewardship/docs/green-service.pdf]

Waste Management and Remediation Services (562000) A wide variety of standards and approaches are used to address the environmental impacts associated with waste management and remediation. From an IO modeling perspective, environmental outcomes from a range of sources and activities are aggregated within this sector. In order to appropriately address this sector, information in addition to that provided by the IO model results will need to be incorporated into the analysis. Considerations should include distinguishing between waste management and remediation, waste composition, waste management options (i.e. landfill, incineration, composting, etc.), organizational responsibilities and the waste chain of custody, and options for volume reduction including remanufacturing and reuse, dematerialization and/or servicizing.

Focusing the analysis on GSA-specific waste management activities should serve as a means of limiting the scope of the analysis. Once again, it is anticipated that generalizations will be drawn from the GSA case to provide guidance for improving the environmental performance related to waste management and remediation in general. Given the particular needs of GSA, the Contractor shall direct more effort toward understanding waste management than remediation.

2.2 Description of Tasks

The following Tasks shall be performed under this Statement of Work. Tasks 1a, 1b, and 5 are defined such that they shall be performed once while Tasks 1c through 4 shall be repeated for each of the sectors analyzed.

Task 1a. Understanding Purchases and Impacts within Sectors: Preparation of Crosswalk and Federal Expenditure Dataset The Contractor shall prepare crosswalks between all applicable Product and Service Codes[footnoteRef:2] (PSC) and North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes and the 6-digit NAICS-based IO codes. The Contractor shall prepare a well-organized dataset containing the full 2011 Federal expenditure[footnoteRef:3] in the highest feasible level of detail, including, at a minimum, the following data: [2: The Product and Service Codes manual is available at http://www.acquisition.gov/PSC%20Manual%20-%20Final%20-%2011%20August%202011.pdf.] [3: Note that the full FY11 federal expenditure dataset shall be prepared even though this analysis focuses on GSA expenditures. The full FY11 dataset may be used for other applications at a later date. ]

· PSC, NAICS, IO Codes

· Agency name

· Supplier data

· GSA specific data

· Service (i.e., FAS or PBS)

· Portfolio name (e.g., AAS, GSS, ITS, TMVCS)

· Contracting Office Name

· FPDS contract data

· Basic IDVs: FSS, GWAC, BOA, BPA, IDC

· Awards: Delivery / Task Order Against IDV, Purchase Order, Definitive Contract, BPA Call

Task 1b. Understanding Purchases and Impacts within Sectors: Direct Impacts per Dollar, Supply Chain Impacts per Dollar, and Baseline Model Run The objective of task 1b is to provide the minimum basis for a clear understanding of model results. The Contractor shall provide an account of the direct impact from each sector of the IO LCA model, for each impact category, per dollar spent. The Contractor shall provide an account of the total impacts from supply chain, capital/infrastructure, use, and end-of-life stages from each sector of the IO LCA model, for each impact category, per dollar spent. These accounts shall be used for model validation and as a basis for communicating the details underlying the analysis.

The Contractor shall perform two baseline model runs to quantify (a) the total supply chain economic activity, (b) total inventory of supply chain resource use and environmental releases, and (c) the total impacts associated with (1) the 2011 Federal total expenditure and (2) the 2011 GSA total expenditure.

Deliverables: (D-1.3) Direct and total supply chain impact accounts – MS Excel file containing well-organized and annotated spreadsheets with tables providing direct and total supply chain impacts for each sector and impact category, per dollar spent.

(D-1.4) Results of baseline model runs – MS Excel file containing spreadsheets with tables providing: (a) the total supply chain economic activity, (b) total inventory of supply chain resource use and environmental releases, and (c) the total impacts associated with

(1) the 2011 Federal total expenditure and (2) the 2011 GSA total expenditure.

Task 1c. Understanding Purchases within Sectors: Detailing Federal Purchases within each Sector The Contractor shall conduct an analysis of GSA spend within each sector. The analysis shall include an overview of the products, services and/or materials being purchased including (1) a categorization based on PSC and NAICS at a minimum, and including any additional categorization methods proposed; (2) an assessment of the heterogeneity of each sector; (3) a classification of purchases including subsector detail if appropriate; (4) a classification of purchases according to purpose: application of the products, services and/or materials used; and (5) key statistics including average, minimum, and maximum size of purchase contract, standard deviation, 95% confidence interval (if appropriate), and a histogram of purchases. The analysis shall also include an overview of suppliers within the sectors including (1) number of suppliers; (2) list of top suppliers; and (3) total $ per supplier, and (4) key statistics related to contract size per supplier.

Deliverables: (D-1.4) Documentation of purchases within selected sectors – Microsoft Word (MS Word) document describing the ranking and percent contribution of PSC within the NAICS sectors selected for analysis.

Task 2. Structural Path Analysis The Contractor shall perform a structural path analysis to determine the environmental impacts for each node within the supply chain network and provide a narrative summary of the supply chain activities and industrial processes responsible for the environmental impacts of each sector. Include relative ranking of nodes within each supply chain based on business volume/monetary transactions and environmental impacts.

The Contractor shall note PSC and NAICS that are not accurately represented by their mapped BEA sector and its associated impacts.

(D-2.3) Graphics – JPG containing graphic(s) of the structural path analysis, if proposed in support of D-2.2 Narrative Summary.

Task 3. Identify Opportunities for Improvement at the Procurement Level The Contractor shall identify approaches that can be used in procurement actions as performance requirements or evaluation factors in order to differentiate products and services by the identified environmental impact. Examples of possible approaches include, but are not limited to:

· Environmental standards or eco-label programs

· Environmental attributes (e.g., recycled or biobased content)

· Product specifications

· Options for making contractor operations more sustainable

· Areas of concern that vendors would be required to address in an environmental narrative about their product, service and/or operations

Deliverables: (D-3.1) Tracking of Environmental Concerns by Sector, PSC, and Specification – MS Excel file containing a tabular or diagrammatic presentation of environmental concerns associated with each selected NAICS sector, an assessment of their relevance to specific PSCs within the NAICS sector, and an assessment of environmental standards, eco-labels, attributes, specifications, or other generalizable areas of concern that could be taken into consideration in the procurement process.

(D-3.2) Summary of the Analysis of Opportunities for Improvement at the Procurement Level – MS Word file describing the results of the analysis performed within this Task. Include a prioritized list of the opportunities for each category considering anticipated environmental reductions and estimated costs.

Task 4. Identify Opportunities for Improvement at the Operational Level By the time the decision to purchase a certain product is made, the options for environmental improvement may be limited. Additional opportunities may be recognized and become available by stepping back from the product or service itself to focus on the function it serves. The purpose of Task 4 is to provide quantitative results relevant to understanding the relative benefits of replacing specific products and/or services purchased by GSA with significantly different alternatives which provide a similar function. The Contractor shall identify operational or policy approaches that GSA can implement to address the identified environmental impacts. The contractor shall also utilize already developed models and datasets to provide an understanding of the associated outcomes when compared to conventional alternatives. To the extent feasible, quantitative results shall be provided. When quantitative results cannot be produced, qualitative considerations should be discussed such that a complete picture of the system-wide effects is addressed.

Examples of operational or policy approaches include, but are not limited to:

· Servicizing models

· Actions that can reduce impacts associated with the use and/or end-of-life phases of the product life cycle

· Operational changes or policies that can reduce demand or shift demand to lower impact sectors

· Alternative technologies

Deliverables: (D-4.1) Results of Analysis of Opportunities for Improvement at the Operational Level – MS Excel containing the results of the analysis performed under Task 4 together with the vectors/values used to run the model and the underlying calculations and assumptions.

(D-4.2) Summary of the Analysis of Opportunities for Improvement at the Operational Level – MS Word file describing the results of the analysis performed within Task 4.

Task 5. Final Reporting The objective of this Task is to document the outcomes of the preceding Tasks in a clear and concise manner understandable to laypersons within GSA. To accomplish this Task, the Contractor shall: (a) write sections of a report placing this work in the context of prior work, clearly describing the approach and analysis, documenting key findings, and discussing the implications of the results, and (b) respond to comments provided through an internal review process coordinated by the COR.

This report shall contain at minimum the following sections: abstract, literature review, method, results, sensitivity analysis, and discussion and shall be accompanied by a document containing supporting information (SI). The abstract shall highlight key points from the article focusing on significant quantitative insights. The literature review shall provide context for the work performed within the preceding subtasks including presenting key findings from previous studies, placing this study within the context of prior studies, and describing previous studies and data collection efforts, which were utilized in the analyses performed within this Statement of Work. The method shall include tables and/or figures describing the analyses, a description of the input-output accounts, satellite accounts, and procurement data used to perform the modeling, a brief description of the impact assessment methods used in the model, a description of other data and/or approaches used, and references to more detailed information provided in the SI. The results shall include selected key figures as well as references to more detailed results provided in the SI. Similarly, the sensitivity analysis shall provide a description of the results of the sensitivity analysis, selected figures and/or tables, and references to more detailed sensitivity results provided in the SI. The discussion shall address the interpretation of results, strengths, and limitations of the results and approach, implications of results for decision-making, and next steps for further investigation of questions that arise in the course of this work. The SI shall include detailed quantitative information necessary for understanding the model, diagrams and results produced not included in the main manuscript, and the associated text.

The Contractor shall provide (a) draft report for internal review as a project milestone (M-5.1). After fully addressing the comments received during internal review, the Contractor shall provide a final version of the revised report and supporting information as a deliverable (D-5.1).

Milestones: (M-5.1) Draft Task 1 manuscript and supporting information – draft version of the report for project internal peer-review.

Deliverables: (D-5.1) Report and Supporting Information revised and formatted – revised version of the draft manuscript (M-5.1) .

The Contractor may pursue publication of the Report (D-5.1) with a scientific journal of its choosing after contract close-out. Any actions associated with publication, including submission, response to comments, and subsequent revisions, are not within scope of the contract. The Contractor may choose to pursue publication at its discretion.

2.3 Data Sources

This Statement of Work is specific in the expectation that the Contractor shall use an input-output modeling approach inclusive of all sectors of the U.S. economy. This is to be combined with a custom satellite account describing resource use and environmental releases as well as a set of characterization factors used to convert results related to the satellite account into environmental impacts. The following section describes the requirements for data sources used for this Statement of Work. The requirements are flexible so as to allow for a broad pool of offerors.

This work builds upon prior activities described in a report included as supplemental material (see Attachment I). It is not necessary that work performed under this Statement of Work use the same data as the prior effort. However, Offerors shall explain their selection of data sources in Technical Approach Section 4.1 in light of those used for the prior effort.

This Statement of Work does not provide significant support for the original development of an input output LCA model. The Contractor is responsible for obtaining an appropriate IO-LCA model. The Contractor shall provide GSA the full details of the Federal Spend Dataset developed for this work in an editable, electronic format and without distribution restrictions. Offerors shall specify in their proposal any restrictions on the use or dissemination of the data used in this analysis. Where not otherwise specified, GSA shall have full rights to use and distribute models and data.

Because the results of this analysis are intended to support GSA decision-making and policy, it is desirable that the underlying model data is of the highest quality and rigor and that they are publicly available to the greatest extent feasible.

2.3.1 Economic Input-Output Model

The Contractor shall use an economic input output model that is relevant for the most current U.S. conditions possible and that is capable of providing the highest degree of sector-level detail possible while considering trade-offs between estimated data and uncertainty. The minimum level of detail and relevance is the detailed 2002 U.S. Benchmark Input Output Accounts published by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. In their technical proposal (See Section 4.1), Offerors shall indicate any additional detail, base year adjustments, or other extensions to this model they intend to incorporate. In addition, the Offeror shall specify whether a single region, two-region multi-regional, or multi-country multi-regional IO model will be utilized and provide justification for their choice. A two-region model which uses U.S. data as a proxy for activities occurring outside the U.S. would be acceptable and would offer the benefit of allowing for approximation of the resource use, impacts, and value added occurring within the U.S. versus outside the U.S. If a two-region model or a multi-country multi-regional IO model is applied, the Offeror shall provide details regarding the data that will be used

2.3.2 Federal Spend Dataset

The Contractor shall provide a dataset describing GSA’s FY2011 spend. At minimum, these purchases shall be classified using the six digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and Product and Service Codes (PSC). The classification scheme shall, to the maximum extent practicable, enable updating, trending, and interaction with other domestic and global classification schemes.

2.3.3 Environmentally Relevant Satellite Accounts

The Contractor shall use satellite accounts together with the economic input output model to calculate environmental impacts. These satellite accounts shall include at a minimum specific rows containing the following data by sector:

· Greenhouse gases considered by the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 4th Assessment Report (CO2, CH4, N2O, HFC-23, HFC-134, and SF6) in kilograms

· Criteria pollutants (O3, PM10, PM2.5, CO, NOx, SO2, and Pb) in kilograms

· Toxic releases as defined by the U.S. EPA Toxics Release Inventory and National Emissions Inventory in kilograms

· Use of nonrenewable fossil energy resources including petroleum, coal, and natural gas in megajoules

· Electricity use in megajoules and kilowatt-hours

· Water consumption in cubic meters

In the technical proposal, the Offeror may propose additional detail they intend to include in the satellite accounts and shall include justification for the choice of additional detail. Priorities for additional detail in the satellite accounts include detailed accounts of resource use, land use in hectares, nutrient releases, and waste flow accounts.

Non-Point and Unscheduled Releases and Fuel Use The Offeror shall specify the extent to which non-point and unscheduled releases are represented in the proposed satellite accounts and the potential for bias associated with these omissions to affect results for the sectors to be analyzed. Similarly, the Offeror shall specify the extent to which transportation-related emissions are represented in the proposed satellite accounts and the potential for bias associated with these omissions to affect results for the sectors that are analyzed. Transportation emissions are expected to be especially relevant for the analysis of waste management. In order to put the results for the focus-sector purchases in context, the Offeror shall quantify the environmental impacts associated with the combustion of fuels purchased directly by the Government. These fuels include petroleum-based fuels such as gasoline and diesel as well as natural gas and coal.

2.3.4 Characterization Factors

The Contractor shall use a set of characterization factors to quantify environmental impact midpoint values and other environmental indicators associated with the environmental flows included in the satellite account.

Impacts shall be characterized according to the method described by the most recent version of the U.S. EPA Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and Other Environmental Impacts (TRACI). In the technical proposal, the Offeror may propose the application of additional characterization factors and/or other relevant environmental indicators such as the water footprint, a water stress index, ecological footprint, fossil resource depletion, or cumulative energy/emergy.

2.3.5 Consumption Based Accounting

The Contractor shall examine the supply chains of goods and services from a consumption-based perspective whereby embedded environmental impacts are associated with final products to reveal the overall impacts associated with final consumption.

2.3.6 Environmental Impacts

The Contractor shall provide results for each of the environmental releases and resource uses represented in the minimum acceptable satellite accounts as well as each of the characterized impacts previously described. In the technical proposal, the Offeror may propose additional specific impacts it will assess to the maximum extent practicable.

2.4 Optional Sector Analysis – Services to Buildings and Dwellings (561700) The Contractor shall conduct a streamlined life cycle analysis for GSA FY2011 expenditures within the Services to Buildings and Dwellings sector to improve agency environmental decision making during the procurement process in accordance with Section 2.0 through Section 2.3.

2.5 Optional Sector Analysis – Computer System Design Services (541512) The Contractor shall conduct a streamlined life cycle analysis for GSA FY2011 expenditures within the Computer System Design Services sector to improve agency environmental decision making during the procurement process in accordance with Section 2.0 through Section 2.3.

2.6 Optional Sector Analysis – Electronic Computer Manufacturing (334111) The Contractor shall conduct a streamlined life cycle analysis for GSA FY2011 expenditures within the Electronic Computer Manufacturing sector to improve agency environmental decision making during the procurement process in accordance with Section 2.0 through Section 2.3.

Period of Performance:

The period of performance shall be from the date of award through August 30, 2013. The estimated date of award is March 1, 2013. The Contractor shall complete all tasks and deliverables by August 30, 2013.

Place of Performance The place of performance will be the Contractor’s facility. There will be no travel associated with performance under this contract. The Government will not reimburse the contractor for any travel.

3.2 Deliverables

3.2.1 Bi-weekly Meetings

The Contractor shall meet with the COR and other relevant Government personnel via teleconference once every two weeks. The purpose of the meeting is to monitor Contractor’s activities and progress, identify problems or anticipated delays, and ensure effective communication between GSA and the Contractor. The Contractor and COR shall establish a detailed agenda before each meeting. Contractor Team members shall participate in calls where an agenda item is relevant to their area of responsibility.

3.2.2 Deliverable Schedule

All deliverables must meet the Government’s requirements. The COR reserves the right to review and either accept or reject the deliverables. The COR also has the right to require correction of any deficiencies found in any deliverable that is contrary to the SOW. If the deliverable is rejected, the Contractor will be notified in writing by the COR of the specific reasons for the rejection.

Rejected Deliverable If the deliverable is immediately rejected, the Contractor must submit an acceptable deliverable within a time period approved by the COR that is appropriate given the complexity of the deliverable. In addition, within two (2) business days, the Contractor must submit in writing to the COR, with a copy to the CO, an explanation for the reason the Contractor failed to comply with this requirement and the actions taken to prevent future occurrences.

Deliverable Returned for Deficiencies If the COR does not accept the deliverable because of deficiencies, and provides written comments to the Contractor with identified deficiencies, the Contractor must respond with a proposed solution to the identified deficiencies within five (5) business days after receipt of comments from the COR. Upon COR approval of the contractor’s proposed solution to deficiencies, the solution will be incorporated in the deliverable in a timely manner, as agreed upon by the Contractor and COR in writing.

The deliverable schedule below outlines the number of business days GSA will have to review the deliverable before either accepting or rejecting the deliverable, or providing comments in writing on identified deficiencies.

4.0 Submission Instructions

Provision 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors—Commercial, applies to this acquisition. The instructions below also apply to potential Offerors.

Please note, in order to be considered for award, all Offerors shall be registered and active in the System for Award Management (SAM) at www.sam.gov.

Offerors shall electronically send any questions regarding this solicitation to rose.rivera@gsa.gov and sally.bockh@gsa.gov with the subject line “RFQ XZ003-XZ996-3 question”, no later than 5:00 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday, January 22, 2013.

Proposals must be received no later than Monday, February 11, 2013, at 5:00 PM Eastern Time. Proposals will be submitted electronically to the following:

Rose Rivera Contracting Officer Rose.rivera@gsa.gov

Sally Bockh Contract Specialist Sally.Bockh@gsa.gov

Files shall be in Microsoft Office 2007 compatible format.

In order to be considered for award, Offerors shall submit a complete proposal which consists of the following:

Volume I – Administrative and Technical Proposal

· Completed Non-Disclosure Agreement by all key personnel (see Attachment III)

· Technical proposal containing a technical approach, descriptions of key personnel, relevant experience, and past performance as detailed below in Section 4.1 Volume II – Price Proposal

· Completed pricing table provided below

· Information to support the Offeror’s proposed pricing, including a description of the Offeror’s pricing methodology The government will not consider any information presented beyond the last whole word within the page limit.

Pricing information shall be limited to Volume II-Price Proposal.

4.1 Evaluation Factors

Factor 1: Technical Proposal

Subfactor 1a. Technical Approach:

The technical approach shall include responses to the solicitation in a manner that clearly demonstrates the Offeror is capable of performing the work. The technical approach shall not exceed 20 pages. The technical approach summary shall include at a minimum the following.

· The Offeror shall summarize the general approach to the project including an overview of methodology, data sources, impact assessment methods, and the extent to which the requirements of Section 2 will be met.

· The Offeror shall provide a detailed description of the environmentally-extended economic input-output model and data source proposed for use in the analysis and any additional data sources that will be incorporated for this analysis. Offerors shall justify their selection of data sources considering the trade-off between quality and public availability. The Offeror shall describe how the following aspects will be addressed in the model:

· differences between the base year of model datasets and 2011 production practices

· infrastructure and capital goods associated with production processes

· imports

· Specify whether a single region, a two-region, or a multi-country multi-regional IO model will be utilized. If a two-region model or a multi-country multi-regional IO model is applied, the Offeror shall provide details regarding the data that will be used.

· the use phase of purchased goods and services

· the end of life phase

· waste management

· recycling

· landfilling

· incineration

· environmental releases

· air emissions

· point-source

· non-point/area

· transportation-related

· freight sectors

· waste management sector

· from landfills

· releases to water and land

· unscheduled, accidental, and/or other releases which might be omitted from national inventory datasets

· landfill leaching

· solid waste

· resource use

· characterization of environmental impacts and other outcomes of interest

· relationship between the proposed impacts and those used in the previous study (See Attachment I).

· method for relating TRACI 2.0 with the environmental release and resource use accounts

· incorporation of any additional outcomes of interest

· other impact categories

· social impacts/outcomes

· externality valuation

· incorporation of any other data sources/models or process-LCA data

· data quality, bias, and uncertainty

· data quality standards maintained by the proposed model

· source reliability

· completeness, inclusion of all relevant information necessary for calculating proposed impacts

· temporal representativeness

· geographical representativeness

· potential for bias associated with the omission of certain aspects (described above or otherwise)

· method for testing the sensitivity of model results to specific parameters

· incorporation of distributions for model parameters

· Offerors shall explain their selection of data sources in light of those used for the prior effort

· The Offeror shall provide a detailed description of the technical approach to Tasks 1 through 5 (exclusive of the description of the model already provided), specifically addressing the following:

· the proposed methodology to measure and/or describe sector heterogeneity

· any additional method of categorizing products and services in addition to the required PSC and NAICS (if proposed)

· samples of graphics or illustrations of the structural path analysis (if proposed)

· any industry expertise relevant to the required industry sectors

· The Offeror shall use the Deliverable Schedule in Section 3.2.2 to provide a completion date for each deliverable and milestone.

· The Offeror shall assert their data rights in accordance with Clause 52.227-14 b(2) Rights in Data (See Attachment II for full text of Clause 52.227-14). GSA requests no restriction on the use or transfer of data in deliverables D-1.3 and D-1.4.

Subfactor 1b. Key Personnel:

All personnel working in direct support of this contract shall be designated as key personnel. The Offeror shall provide the names of personnel who shall participate in performing this work, their roles in this work, and the estimated percentages of their time applied to this work. The Offeror shall provide resumes or curriculum vitae including education, experience, and relevant publications for each of these personnel. The Offeror shall indicate where expertise exists in one or more of the selected industry sectors, in federal sustainable acquisition and/or relevant skill sets.

Subfactor 1c. Relevant Experience:

The Offeror shall demonstrate its experience in performing projects of similar size, scope, and complexity completed in the past five years. The Offeror shall provide three relevant projects. Each project description shall be limited to one page or less. The Offeror shall provide the following for each project:

· Name of the customer

· Contact information of the customer

· Date of the project

· Description of the project addressing the following elements, at a minimum:

· Size

· Scope

· Complexity

· Results

· Any complicated or unique issues associated with the project

· List of publicly available publications or reports associated with the project

Subfactor 1d. Past Performance

The offeror shall request the Project Manager, COR or CO for each of the relevant projects (submitted in response to Subfactor 1c. Relevant Experience) complete and submit the attached Past Performance Satisfaction Survey (Attachment IV) directly to GSA prior to the RFP closing date.

References shall submit completed surveys via email to rose.rivera@gsa.gov and sally.bockh@gsa.gov prior to the RFP closing date.

Subject line:

Customer Satisfaction Survey

GSA will not accept completed past performance questionnaires submitted directly by the offeror.

The government reserves the right to consider any and all relevant information from other sources when evaluating the offeror's past performance including information contained within the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS).

Factor 2: Price Proposal

Based on market research and projects of a similar scope, GSA expects that the work under this solicitation can be accomplished for total firm fixed price between $100,000 and $150,000. Any proposal that is not within that range shall include an explanation that specifically draws the Government's attention to any unique technical aspects of the proposal the offeror would like the Government to consider as the justification for the deviation from the range.

Total Price – Required Sectors

Total Price – Optional Sectors

Total Price (Required + Optional Sectors)

5.0 Evaluation

GSA will evaluate all proposals on the following factors and subfactors and make a best value determination. The two factors are equal in importance. The subfactors under Factor 1 are listed in descending order of significance where technical approach is the most significant.

In evaluating Subfactor 1d. Past Performance the government will use the information in the returned customer satisfaction surveys as well as any relevant information from other sources, such as PPIRS. In the case of an offeror without a record of relevant past performance or for whom information is not available, the offeror will be rated neutral for this subfactor.

· Factor 1 – Technical/Non-Price Factors

· Subfactor 1a – Technical Approach

· Subfactor 1b – Key Personnel

· Subfactor 1c – Relevant Experience

· Subfactor 1d – Past Performance

· Factor 2 – Price

6.0 Contract Requirements

Key Personnel Substitutions

Key personnel are those personnel identified in Subfactor 1b and working in direct support of the contract. In the event of a key personnel substitution, the Contractor shall promptly notify the CO and the COR in writing of the reasons for the substitution and include a resume of an individual of equal or superior qualifications. Subsequently, the Contractor shall replace the Key Person with the accepted alternative within ten working days of receiving a written modification from the CO.

Unsatisfactory Performance by Contractor Personnel

In the event that the performance of assigned Contractor personnel or any substitute(s) is determined by the Government to be unsatisfactory at any time during the contract, the Government reserves the right to request and receive satisfactory personnel replacement within ten calendar days of receipt by the Contractor of written notification. Notification will include the reason for requesting replacement personnel.

Contract Administration

The Contracting Officer is the only person authorized to make or approve any changes to the requirements or terms and conditions of this contract. In the event the Contractor makes any changes at the direction of any person other than the Contracting Officer, the change will be considered to have been made without authority and no adjustment will be made in the contract price to cover any increase in cost incurred as a result thereof.

The following individual is the GSA Contracting Officer responsible for administration of this contract:

Rose Rivera Contracting Officer Office of Acquisition Management 2200 Crystal Drive, Suite 806 Arlington, VA 22202 Phone: 703.605.9029 E-mail: rose.rivera@gsa.gov

The Contracting Officer or the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) is responsible for accepting all invoices under this contract.

The following individual is the GSA COR for this contract:

Brennan Conaway Office of Acquisition Management 2200 Crystal Drive, Suite 806 Arlington, VA 22202 Phone: 703-605-2613 E-mail: brennan.conaway@gsa.gov

Applicable Clauses

52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions—Commercial Items 52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders—Commercial Items, Restrictions on Subcontractor Sales to the Government 52.204-10 Reporting Executive Compensation and First-Tier Subcontract Awards 52.209-6 Protecting the Government’s Interest When Subcontracting with Contractor’s Debarred, Suspended, or Proposed for Debarment 52.219-6 Notice of Total Small Business Set-Aside 52.219-28 Post Award Small Business Program Representation 52.222-3 Convict Labor 52.222-21 Prohibition of Segregated Facilities 52.222-26 Equal Opportunity 52.222-35 Equal Opportunity for Veterans 52.222-36 Affirmative Action for Workers with Disabilities 52.222-37 Employment Reports on Veterans 52.223-18 Contractor Policy to Ban Text Messaging While Driving 52.225-13 Restrictions on Certain Foreign Purchases 52.227-14 Rights in Data - General 52.232-33 Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer—Central Contractor Registration 552.212-71 Contract Terms and Conditions Applicable to GSA Acquisition of Commercial Items, 552.203-71 Restrictions on Advertising 52.217-8 Option to Extend Services (Nov 1999)

7.0 Attachments

I. “Life Cycle Assessment of Federal Procurement”. Facilities Solutions Group.(2011).

II. Clause 52.227-14 Rights in Data – General III. Nondisclosure Statement IV. Past Performance Satisfaction Survey