Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin today signed an Executive Order to give preference to companies that are fighting climate change when awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in State contracts each year. “Climate change is the most urgent environmental issue of our time,” Governor Shumlin said. “Vermont has been a leader in America when it comes to combating global warming, but we can and must do more. By using our significant purchasing power as a state to reward climate-conscious businesses, we will help promote those efforts and encourage other businesses to adopt similar practices. It is my hope that whoever is elected as the next governor will keep this Executive Order in place.”
The Executive Order directs the Secretary of Administration, working in consultation with the Governor’s Climate Cabinet, “to include processes in the State’s acquisition policies that ensure the favorable consideration of vendor business practices that promote clean energy and take action to address climate change.” Such practices include:
· Use of thermal and electric efficiency and conservation measures;
· Use of renewable energy sources for its operations;
· Efforts to reduce and track carbon emissions;
· Use of and encouragement of employee use of electric and zero emissions vehicles including providing workplace charging stations;
· Offering employees an option for a fossil fuel divested retirement account;
· Whether the supplies or services offered promote waste, energy and water efficiency
The Executive Order does not supersede other contracting considerations such as cost or rewarding businesses based in Vermont or that manufacture products in Vermont. Under the Order, if all considerations are similar for a given contract, a business that has strong climate change and renewable energy policies will be given favorable treatment over one that does not.
Under Gov. Shumlin, Vermont has been a leader when it comes to combatting climate change. In 2011, Gov. Shumlin set the goal of reaching 90 percent renewable energy by 2050. In May 2015, Vermont signed the Under2Mou, which brings together international leaders from 57 jurisdictions from 19 countries and five continents to work to limit the increase in global average temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius – the warming threshold at which scientists say there will likely be catastrophic climate disruptions. Vermont has also joined 21 other states and regional governments in signing the first-ever Pan-American action statement on climate change. In December 2015, Vermont signed an agreement with five other Northeast and mid-Atlantic states – Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, New York, and Rhode Island – to work together to develop market-based policies to achieve significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution from the transportation sector.
At home, the State has also made significant progress building out renewable energy, increasing the amount of solar installed or permitted by tenfold and wind energy generation by 20 times.
Vermont’s focus on combating climate change has led to economic success. In the past year, there has been an increase of over 1,400 clean energy jobs, bringing the total number of Vermonters employed in this industry to 17,715. With one in every 17 workers - or about six percent of the State's workforce - now part of the clean energy economy, Vermont has the highest number of per capita clean energy jobs of any U.S. state.
The Governor’s Executive Order remains in effect unless a future governor chooses to repeal it. The Order signed today by the Governor is copied below.
STATE OF VERMONT
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT
EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 05-16
[Climate Change Considerations in State Procurements]
WHEREAS, climate change is the most urgent environmental issue of our time;
WHEREAS, cultivating a “green economy” in Vermont has led to the creation of over 1,400 new clean energy jobs in the past year and Vermont now has the highest number of per capita clean energy jobs of any U.S. state;
WHEREAS, the State has the duty to lead by example and encourage companies to promote and utilize best practices that are consistent with our efforts to reduce emissions and move to clean energy in Vermont;
WHEREAS, the legislature has expressed a strong policy in support of combatting climate change by: (a) setting goals of producing 25 percent of energy consumed in Vermont through the use of renewable energy sources by 2025, 10 V.S.A. § 580(a), and of reducing by 75 percent greenhouse gas emissions in Vermont from the 1990 levels by 2050, 10 V.S.A. § 578(a); and (b) adopting an innovative renewable energy standard with Act 56 of 2015 that sets utility renewable targets and implements solutions to address carbon emissions from the transportation and heating sectors, which account for more than two-thirds of Vermont’s carbon emissions;
WHEREAS, Vermont’s 2016 Comprehensive Energy Plan calls for a reduction in per capita energy use of 15 percent by 2025, and calls for 90 percent renewables by 2050; and
WHEREAS, Vermont can encourage additional action on climate change through the state procurement process.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that I, Peter Shumlin, by virtue of the authority vested in me as the Governor of the State of Vermont, do hereby order and direct the Secretary of Administration, in consultation with the Climate Cabinet, to include processes in the State’s acquisition policies that ensure the favorable consideration of vendor business practices that promote clean energy and take action to address climate change. The Secretary may set a minimum financial threshold for application of these policies, and the policies shall include consideration of practices such as:
(1) Use of thermal and electric efficiency and conservation measures;
(2) Use of renewable energy sources for its operations;
(3) Efforts to reduce and track carbon emissions;
(4) Use of and encouragement of employee use of electric and zero emissions vehicles including providing workplace charging stations;
(5) Offering employees an option for a fossil fuel divested retirement account;
(6) Whether the supplies or services offered promote waste, energy and water efficiency; and
(7) Other factors deemed relevant by the Secretary relating to environmentally responsible practices.
After consideration of all relevant factors, a bidder that adheres to the above best practices shall be given favorable consideration in the competitive bidding process. Favorable consideration shall be consistent with and not supersede any Secretary of Administration guidance that, all other considerations being equal, preference will be given to resident bidders of the State and/or products raised or manufactured in the State.
This Executive Order shall take effect upon signing.
Source: Governor's office 7.19.2016