Sept 17 -- The Office of Government-wide Policy (OGP), General Services Administration (GSA), invites public comments by November 16, 2021 regarding its plan for the the CDP Supply Chain Climate Change Information Request of federal contractors.
The CDP Supply Chain Climate Change Information Request is an electronic questionnaire designed to collect information that is widely used by large private and public sector organizations to understand, assess, and mitigate potentially disruptive and costly supply chain risks, investment risks, and environmental impacts. The questionnaire is administered by CDP North America, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (“CDP”). CDP administers the questionnaire annually on behalf of over 590 institutional investors, 200 major corporations, and several large governmental purchasing organizations in addition to GSA. CDP's most recent annual survey was directed to over 20,000 companies, with over 9,600 electing to respond.
Under previously approved information collection requests, GSA has directed CDP since 2017 to include several hundred major Federal contractors annually among its potential survey respondents. In accordance with 31 U.S. Code § 3512(c)(1)(b), GSA uses information received from these companies via CDP to inform and develop purchasing policies and contract requirements necessary to safeguard Federal assets against waste, loss, and misappropriation resulting from unmitigated exposure to supply chain energy market and environmental risks. GSA also uses the information in accordance with Executive Orders 13990, 14008, and 14030 to inform development of policies and programs to reduce climate risks and greenhouse gas emissions associated with federal procurement activities.
For example, GSA has used CDP information in recent years to perform critical market research in connection with multi-billion-dollar strategic contracting efforts. In one case, GSA determined that data center facilities used by potential network infrastructure providers could be at risk due to flooding, extreme heat, or lack of available cooling water sources, placing Federal client operations at risk. In another case, GSA used information from the CDP survey to research potential contractors' existing risk mitigation and greenhouse gas reduction practices and to design appropriate contract requirements to ensure that contractors assess and mitigate these risks and reduce greenhouse gases associated with their federal contract activities. In another case, GSA determined that energy savings practices available to potential information technology service providers could significantly lower their overhead costs and that this would likely reduce contract costs for GSA and other Federal agencies. GSA uses the information collected to research development of similar policies and programs and to verify contractor compliance with existing programs.
GSA Federal Contractor Climate Action Scorecard at
https://d2d.gsa.gov/report/gsa-federal-contractor-climate-action-scorecard
CDP Climate Change 2021 Questionnaire:
https://guidance.cdp.net/en/tags?cid=18&ctype=theme&gettags=0&idtype=ThemeID&incchild=1µsite=0&otype=Questionnaire&page=1&tgprompt=TG-124%2CTG-127%2CTG-125
Draft CDP Climate Change Information Request supporting statement:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pwvclirse0ebwoy/CDP%20Supporting%20Statement%20draft%2009-21.pdf?dl=0
FR notice inviting public comments:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/09/17/2021-20140/information-collection-cdp-supply-chain-climate-change-information-request
Point of contact: Jed Ela, Sustainability Advisor, Office of Government-wide Policy, GSA jed.ela@gsa.gov 202-854-8804
