Under the GreenBuy Award Program, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites receive recognition for purchasing programs that obtain sustainable products, save energy, conserve water, and reduce negative health and environmental impact. Sites that choose to participate in this voluntary program have the option to go beyond meeting all sustainable acquisition requirements and demonstrate leadership by working toward a GreenBuy Award or a GreenSpace Award.
The GreenBuy Award Program is based on a Priority Products List (see Attachment 2 of the GreenBuy Award Program guide), which identifies a set of products with leadership-level sustainability goals. DOE established the Priority Products list to help DOE sites focus on purchases most pertinent for the organization and thereby improve the overall effectiveness of sustainable acquisition programs. In addition, the Priority Product attributes can be used as specifications in contracts. Check out the Priority Products webpage for more information.
The GreenSpace Award is a component of the GreenBuy Award Program. The GreenSpace Award is for achieving goals for multiple products within a single space or function. The products are the same as those for the GreenBuy Award but are limited to those applicable to the particular space or function. The product goals are the same as those on the Priority Product List.
The sustainability goals are based on evaluations of environmental performance standards, ecolabels, and input from DOE sites as well as external organizations. The goals often go beyond the Federal requirements, but do not preclude responsibility for meeting the Federal sustainable acquisition requirements.
To see the selection criteria for the DOE Priority Products, read the History and Background on the Development of the US Department of Energy's GreenBuy Award Program.
To be nominated for the GreenBuy/Space Awards, enter data in the DOE Sustainability Dashboard. If a DOE site's data in the nomination website indicates you have met any of the following award levels, your site will receive recognition:
- Bronze: 4 products (covering at least 2 product categories)
- Silver: 6 products (covering at least 3 product categories)
- Gold: 9 products (covering at least 5 product categories)
The awards become progressively more challenging over time, encouraging participants to transition to more and more sustainable products. Awardees will be recognized for the same or higher level in subsequent years but not a lower level. While the same award level may be recognized in consecutive years, the stipulations are:
- Gold level: 3 product types may be repeated
- Silver level: 1 product type may be repeated
- Bronze level: 0 product types may be repeated
We want to keep a balance between encouraging transition to more sustainable products and recognition of your efforts. Winners of the bronze, silver, and gold GreenBuy awards are recognized each year and announced at the January teleconference.
To recognize leadership and continuous improvement in transitioning to more sustainable products, we introduced three new awards in FY2018. Sites that earn the GreenBuy Gold Award multiple times will qualify for these new awards.
- To Achieve Prime: Sites earn GreenBuy Gold 3-4 times
- To Achieve Superior: Sites earn GreenBuy Gold 5-9 times
- To Achieve Elite: Sites earn GreenBuy Gold 10 or more times
In addition, DOE sites can submit their Priority Products goal achievements for a Sustainability award.
To view the GreenBuy Award nominations for previous fiscal years (up through FY 2000), see the former GreenBuy Program Awards Nomination website (login required). To view those beginning FY 2022, access them on the DOE Sustainability Dashboard.
To better understand how to nominate your organization for a GreenBuy Award, see the GreenBuy Award Tutorial.
