Sustainable Highway Construction Guidebook (2019)

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23 Procurement is the process of purchasing the external services and materials necessary to deliver a project. Section 2.2.2 noted that there is little industry guidance on procuring sustain- ability in highway construction. This section provides basic guidance on how to include sus- tainability in current procurement methods. Some aspects of the procurement process already use sustainability considerations (e.g., some materials procurement), but the emphasis in this chapter is on sustainable procurement of the entire project using best-value procurement, alternative technical concepts (ATCs), and sustainable procurement. 5.1 Best-Value Procurement Best-value procurement (BVP) is a procurement process that considers both qualitative and quantitative criteria for selecting project contractors and vendors. Qualitative or quantitative sustainability criteria can be included as a scored design/technical solution. The following are recommended items to be included as BVP evaluation criteria if an owner wishes to include sustainability as a construction goal within the project [notation and nomenclature are based on NCHRP Report 561 (Scott et al. 2006)]: • Include an environmental considerations evaluation criterion (D.2), but go beyond request- ing proposers’ plans to meet regulatory requirements by asking for proposed SCPs that address the environment as listed in Chapter 9 or new proposed ones accompanied by evaluations described in Chapter 4. • Include a life-cycle cost evaluation criterion (A.1). This may be most useful for specific portions of the project where life-cycle cost procedures can be well defined using existing literature or processes such as bridges, tunnels, and pavements. • Include a sustainable construction evaluation criterion (a new D.3 designation). Evaluate proposed SCPs defined in Chapter 9 or new proposed ones accompanied by evaluations described in Chapter 4 against the project’s stated sustainability goal(s). • Set a project goal of achieving a sustainable rating system score, rating, or achievement level. Include an evaluation criterion that requires proposers to contribute to the goal’s achieve- ment (a new D.4 designation). Since all rating systems include non-construction compo- nents (e.g., design components), construction contributes to, but does not constitute, the total effort. It is appropriate to ask proposers to identify specific credits, their value, and the specific contractor actions needed to achieve the credits. • Use lane rental and traffic control evaluation criteria (B.1 and B.2). Allow the inclusion of related SCPs as determined from Chapter 9 and/or Chapter 4. • Reward contractors who have experience with sustainability efforts or have creden- tialed personnel on staff and assigned to the project by including these in the following C H A P T E R 5 Procuring Sustainability

24 Sustainable Highway Construction Guidebook evaluation categories: pre-qualification (P.0), past project performance (P.1), or subcontrac- tors’ information (P.3). • Require a sustainability management plan (Section 6.6) in the project management plans (P.4) evaluation criterion. To date, where sustainability has been included in BVP, it is most often either a non-specific portion of a technical solution evaluation criterion (in other words, it is included as a topic to be addressed but assigned no specific weight or maximum possible score), or it has been assigned a relatively minor factor/weight (often 5% or less of the scored criteria). When beginning to implement sustainability as a new BVP technical solution evaluation criterion, it may be prudent to score it as a small fraction of the total qualification and/or technical score to allow owners and proposers to adjust to the new requirements while they have a relatively small influence on contract award. An initial target of 5% to 10% of qualifications and/or technical score is appropriate. As familiarity grows, this fraction can grow as appropriate (for instance, on a project with high/multiple sustainability priorities). 5.2 Alternative Technical Concepts According to FHWA, “Alternative Technical Concepts (ATC) are suggested changes sub- mitted by proposing teams to the contracting agency’s supplied basic configurations, project scope, design or construction criteria. These proposed changes provide a solution that is equal to or better than the requirements in the Request for Proposal document. If the ATC concept is acceptable to the contracting agency, the concept may be incorporated as part of the propos- ing team’s technical and price submittal. ATCs provide flexibility to the proposers in order to enhance innovation and achieve efficiency.” ATCs can improve a project, typically by reducing cost (construction or life-cycle cost), reducing construction time and disruption, or improv- ing environmental outcomes. These outcomes, however, are predicated on the owner’s ATC evaluation process and criteria. Sustainability can be included as an ATC evaluation criterion but must be precisely defined to receive meaningful consideration. As a minimum, use the sustainability definition, the SCPs identified in Chapter 3 and discussed in Chapter 9, and the evaluation method and/or sustain- ability rating system proposed in Chapter 4 to provide precise language that describes sustain- ability and desired sustainable practices. It may be useful to define the sustainability goals of a project in terms of Table 2, and then instruct proposers to use Table 3 and Chapter 4 to identify SCPs to include in an ATC. 5.3 Sustainable Procurement Sustainable procurement is a purchasing process that accounts for not only economic but also environmental and social considerations. Using or requiring aspects of sustainable pro- curement is possible on projects today; however, guidelines for such procurement can be limited. Legislation at the federal and state levels is moving toward encouraging sustainable procurement practices. These can be summarized as follows: • FHWA Green Procurement Guide (2010) provides guidelines on procurement methods that emphasize the environmental dimensions of sustainability. • Public procurement in California (as of 2019) requires the provision of environmental prod- uct declarations (EPDs) to report life-cycle assessment (LCA) indicators, such as GWP, for a list of eligible construction materials before they can be installed. Other states, including

Procuring Sustainability 25 Oregon and Washington, are considering similar legislation. The use of EPDs as a procure- ment instrument emphasizes the procurement of construction materials rather than the entire project. • Design-build (DB) projects using BVP in combination with context-sensitive design (CSD) can lead to the inclusion of aesthetic and socio-economic procurement criteria. While legislative priorities may change over time, it is likely that in the future, sustainable procurement will be developed as a combination of the above approaches.