EPA’s guidance recognizes that environmentally preferable purchasing is a dynamic concept that, depending on the product category, will not necessarily be implemented in the same manner from agency to agency or even within a specific agency. To demonstrate some of the ways environmentally preferable purchasing principles are currently being applied, EPA is documenting pilot procurement projects undertaken by executive agencies, state and local governments, and the private sector. This case study documents one of these projects. It describes efforts by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), with the help of EPA’s Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) Program, to introduce environmentally preferable purchasing into routine renovations of the Pentagon—DOD’s headquarters in Arlington, Virginia— and several other DOD facilities.

• Defending the Environment at the Department of Defense: Using Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Procedures to Maintain the Pentagon and Other DOD Facilities (PDF)(28 pp, 458 K, July 1999, 742-R-99-002)