SOURCES SOUGHT
B -- Purchase of Professional Services from Sylvatica
- Notice Date
- 7/27/2006
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Room B129, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-1640
- ZIP Code
- 20899-1640
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-06-860-0541
- Response Due
- 8/3/2006
- Archive Date
- 8/4/2006
- Description
- This is a notice of intent to award a sole source purchase order to Sylvatica (see www.sylvatica.com). BACKGROUND: The U. S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Building and Fire Research Laboratory (BFRL) studies building materials; computer-integrated construction practices; fire science and fire safety engineering; and structural, mechanical, and environmental engineering. Products of the laboratory's research include measurements and test methods, performance criteria, and technical data that support innovations by industry and are incorporated into building and fire standards and codes. One of BFRL?s major program areas is Healthy and Sustainable Buildings, to which the Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) software project is a major contributor. BEES uses the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach to evaluate the environmental performance of building products. A dozen environmental impacts are scientifically measured for each product, but two of these impact categories were found, during a recent NIST workshop, to be so poorly modeled by the existing EPA ?TRACI? method that the workshop participants could not assess their relative importance. These two methods were withdrawn from the more recent releases of EPA?s TRACI method because they are not well-developed. NIST takes a lead role, with its BEES software, database, and methods, in providing guidance to federal purchasers and others about the life cycle environmental and economic performance of products. In addition, BEES is increasingly used to evaluate and present information about bio-based products. For all of these uses, the impacts of product life cycles on land use and water use can be very significant. However, the existing methods for impact assessment for these two categories in North America are neither documented, peer-reviewed, nor well-developed. This is a significant gap within the TRACI-based impact assessment methods provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and used by the thousands of users of NIST?s BEES tool. Without valid impact assessment methods for water use and land use, decision makers are forced to ignore these impacts entirely when they make LCA-based decisions about products and policies. The impact assessment methods whose development will be facilitated by this acquisition could prove useful to the ?LCA into Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED)? activity of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The USGBC, a non-profit organization promoting environmentally friendly, or ?green,? buildings, has developed the LEED rating system for assessing the greenness of buildings. In an effort to incorporate a stronger scientific basis into LEED, USGBC has initiated the ?LCA into LEED? activity. Since USGBC has decided to use the TRACI impact assessment approach for its LCA activity, any enhancements to TRACI developed for BEES could also prove very useful for LEED. SCOPE OF REQUIRED WORK: The scope of this acquisition is for a Contractor to launch a US project with North American advisors that will leverage National Science Foundation (NSF) funding to develop rigorous, peer-reviewed, data-driven and practical cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods that address these impact categories for BEES and are compatible with the US EPA?s TRACI system. The objective of this acquisition is for a Contractor to build a research team with national expert participation, survey and report on the state of the art internationally on the impact categories of water use and land use, recruit and facilitate a project advisory panel with representatives from US EPA, NIST, US Geological Survey (USGS) Natural Resources Canada, and the Mexican Environmental Agency, Secretaria De Medio Ambiente Y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT), and launch the research project to address land use and water use. The Contractor shall issue several reports documenting the state of the art and the state of available spatial databases on land use, soil and habitat resources, water use and water resources. The Contractor shall also plan and facilitate an international workshop with invited papers contributing ideas to the development of rigorous and practical methods of LCIA for land and water use. The Contractor shall generate two reports, a web-based data and research exchange hub, and will also plan and facilitate an international workshop. The first report shall summarize the existing state of the art for LCIA of land use and water use worldwide. The second report shall summarize available spatial databases concerning the availability of land and water resources and their use by processes in product life cycles, and suggest how these might best be used to develop rigorous and practical TRACI-compatible methods of LCIA for land and water use. The website shall be interactive and designed to facilitate exchange of databases and methods, and to strengthen global collaboration on these two impact categories. The Contractor shall post the proceedings of the workshop on the Internet. Expected outcomes: More credibility for BEES and better environmental decision making by BEES users including Federal agencies, because BEES will offer a more comprehensive and accurate evaluation of the environmental impacts of products. FINDINGS: Based on market research conducted by NIST, NIST has only been able to identify one potential source to provide the rare combination of expert services noted above: Sylvatica. Sylvatica has over 10 years experience in Life Cycle Assessment, including the roles of directing the LCA methodology advancement program at the global level for the United Nations Environment Program, and also several projects for the U. S. E.P.A. that have developed and advanced methods within the EPA?s ?TRACI? system for life cycle impact assessment. Sylvaticsa?s extensive and varied background constitute unique expertise that will enable management of a project that brings together specialists in the area required by this procurement. Therefore, NIST intends to award a sole source purchase order to Sylvatica under the authority of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 13.106-1(b) unless other responsible sources identify themselves to joseph.widdup@nist.gov on or before the response date for this posting and clearly and unequivocally demonstrate their relevant experience and current capability to provide the services required as noted above. The Government will determine, based on written responses received in response to this posted notice, whether this procurement will be competed.
- Record
- SN01099234-W 20060729/060727220408 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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