US Sustainable Products and Services procurement rule

The Biden-Harris administration has proposed a Sustainable Products and Services procurement rule to help achieve its goal of net-zero emissions from Federal procurement by 2050 by modernizing existing sustainable purchasing standards and requiring government agencies “to procure sustainable products and services to the maximum extent practicable”. The proposed rule is open for comment until 2 October 2023. While these proposals focus on environmental characteristics of products, they remain an effective mechanism to drive corporate behaviour change. Case in point, it’s worth noting that the US government is “the world’s single largest purchaser”, purchasing approximately US$665 billion in goods and services annually.