Meeting — Aug. 2, 2023

The GSA Acquisition Policy Federal Advisory Industry Partnerships Subcommittee convened for a public meeting at 3:00 PM on August 2, 2023, virtually via Zoom, with Kristin Seaver, Chair presiding.

In accordance with FACA, as amended, 5 U.S.C. App 2, the meeting was open to the public from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM EST.

Meeting agenda

Committee Members Present:

Kristin Seaver, Chairperson — General Dynamics Information Technology
Farad Ali, Co Chairperson — Asociar LLC
Mamie Mallory — Mallory & Associates, LLC
Deryl McKissack — McKissack & McKissack
David Wagger — Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries
Kimberly Wise White — American Chemistry Council

Absent: Denise Bailey, C. Gail Bassette, Susan Lorenz-Fisher, Stacy Smedley, Nigel Stephens, Keith Tillage

Guest Speakers & Presenters: 

Kathryn Newhouse — Council on Environmental Quality
Betty Cremmins — Council on Environmental Quality

GSA Staff Present:

Stephanie Hardison — Deputy Designated Federal Officer
David Cochennic — GAP FAC Support
Skylar Holloway — GAP FAC Support
Rachel Henigan — Closed Captioner
Daniel Swartz — ASL Interpreter
Andrea Sternim — ASL Interpreter

Call to order

Stephanie Hardison, Deputy Designated Federal Officer, opened the public meeting by welcoming the group before reminding the public that there will be time for comments and statements at the end of the meeting. Any written comments can be submitted through regulations.gov. Roll call was performed before the meeting was turned over to Chairperson Kristin Seaver.

Welcome and opening remarks

Chairperson Kristin Seaver thanked everyone for attending today before reviewing the agenda. The group will review where the subcommittee currently stands before hearing from the guest speakers.

Subcommittee business

Kristin Seaver reviewed the next set of upcoming meetings for the committee. By the next full committee meeting, the group’s expectation is to refine their next set of recommendations based on the feedback received from the GSA.

The group has three recommendations to refine. Their innovative new entrants recommendation was centered around how to make recommendations to target new and innovative entrants to help in the climate risk and sustainability realm in the federal marketplace. The goal is to identify mechanisms that exist that could be levered and develop categories and types of challenges that the group would recommend building that pipeline. The group will speak to small innovative companies to hear what their challenges are. The output discussed would be a pipeline of several types of challenges and prize competitions that GSA could sponsor moving forward.

On the climate and acquisition maturity model recommendation, the group was asked to do more research along with planning on how and if GSA should sponsor a maturity model and what that would look like. The group will do due diligence around who has done a maturity model already. The output is to define how this would work and what would be the key benchmarks of maturity and capability.

The third recommendation which wasn’t submitted, but received a lot of interest in was around a lighthouse – creating a network of networks. The question for the group is to determine if they have enough bandwidth to tackle this recommendation or if they should stick with refining their first two recommendations.

The group took the time to discuss what their next steps would be surrounding the first two recommendations and decided to split the subcommittee into two task forces to tackle the two recommendations. After splitting the group into task forces, the group added to their speaker list to hear presentations to aid with refining their recommendations. The group is encouraged to brainstorm speakers for their subcommittee as well as potentially having small emerging entrants to form a panel.

Recommendation Feedback

Katy Newhouse and Betty Cremmins shared with the group what they are focused on at Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and any insights they can give on the current recommendations.

Their team is tasked with implementing EO14057 which is represented in the federal sustainability plan. CEQ has eight different pillars they are focused on. Katy and Betty co-lead the net zero emissions procurement pillar. Within that pillar, they are thinking about what the government buys, who the government buys from, and how the government buys.

Q: Kristin Seaver -Some of the feedback we received on expanding the supplier base with innovative new entrants was that it’s hard for GSA to find these suppliers to begin engagement. How do you expand your parameters to go out and find the folks we don’t know about that can help us with our cause?
A: Katy Newhouse – We aren’t buying things directly so there’s less of a connection. GSA’s Green Proving Ground and a program within DOD focus on a problem or area where they think there’s opportunity. They lay out where they want to go and call on industry to submit their solutions.
A: Betty Cremmins – The area of sustainability, greenhouse gases, and other environmental impacts are great for innovation. The rulemaking and regulations being created are enabling the government to seek innovations from the private sector and integrate them into the supply chain. There are other opportunities for a shift with how we are contracting, how we are doing acquisition planning, and how we look to the market to better inspire innovations.
Q: Kimberly Wise White – You mentioned you sometimes modify the acquisition process. How do you receive information that directs you to make a change in a certain area?
A: Betty Cremmins -It will depend on the contract and how it’s written. Depending on how the contract is written, it can limit the ability to procure innovation due to requirements and not performance specifications. There are many ways to identify current limitations in contracts and the procurement process that limit us from purchasing the latest and greatest in the market.
Q: David Wagger – Is your perception of those changes capable of being done at the policy level or is there a rule making process that goes into it? How quickly can this be done?
A: Betty Cremmins – In some cases, there are changes that require a long thorough process, but there are changes we can make within our system that don’t require the extensive regulation process.
Q: Kristin Seaver – There are mechanisms already out there and part of our goal is to refine a few mechanisms for GSA to take advantage of. Who do we talk to find out what challenges are most powerful?
A: Katy Newhouse – Jeremy Alcorn (Green Proving Ground) and Dave Asiello (DoD) are great people to hear from. There was a memorandum of understanding signed between DoD and GSA on the Sustainable Technology Evaluation and Demonstration (STED) program. They partner with the federal acquisition service to identify an opportunity to accelerate getting those products available for purchase.
Q: Kristin Seaver – From a maturity model perspective, how can we create something that has a defined enough focus to make a difference that people can adhere to and build their capabilities around? How do you go from not being informed to complying and engaging? How do you set motivation for companies to lead and pull the supplier base forward?
A: Katy Newhouse – Think about the acquisition, contract, and the procurement level concepts that would be needed. GSA has started to do this within SFTools. What does the industry need to understand to meet GSA in these areas? There’s also work GSA has been doing on the climate risk level with requiring suppliers to develop a climate risk plan. This is another area suppliers will need to be able to respond to.
A: Betty Cremmins – With procurement you have to set climate requirements which require a certain understanding of terminology and standards. Some suppliers won’t be familiar with this. In your maturity model, it’s good to take it from a compliance to innovation lenses since it’s easy to talk about these as new ideas.
Q: David Wagger -What are the biggest opportunities to focus our efforts? Looking at net zero at 2050 do you see procurement areas that have the most potential for reduction?
A: Betty Cremmins – It’s a multivariable prioritization. Greenhouse gas emissions of the sector is a critical analysis. The size of the contracts on the procurement scale for the agencies is another. The way the market is moving is critical along with the sequencing and how it interacts with other administrative objectives. There are other environmental factors along with climate risk.
A: Katy Newhouse – The level of customization with products where the industry is building something for the government seems to also be a clear opportunity.

Public Input Opportunity

The subcommittee opened the floor up for public comments, however there were none.

Closing remarks

Kristin Seaver turned the meeting over to Stephanie Hardison.

Adjournment

Stephanie Hardison adjourned the meeting at 5:00 P.M. ET.

I hereby certify that, to the best of my knowledge, the foregoing minutes are accurate and complete.

Digitally signed by Kristin Seaver 1/30/2024
Kristin Seaver
Chairperson
GAP FAC Industry Partnerships Subcommittee

Digitally signed by Farad Ali 1/30/2024
Farad Ali
Co-Chairperson
GAP FAC Industry Partnerships Subcommittee