An official website of the United States government.

This is not the current EPA website. To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2021. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work. More information »

Sustainable Marketplace: Greener Products and Services

Executive Order 13101—Greening the Government Through Waste Prevention, Recycling, and Federal Acquisition

It is the national policy to prefer pollution prevention, whenever feasible. Pollution that cannot be prevented should be recycled; pollution that cannot be prevented or recycled should be treated in an environmentally safe manner. Disposal should be employed only as a last resort.

Agencies shall comply with executive branch policies for the acquisition and use of environmentally preferable products and services and implement cost-effective procurement preference programs favoring the purchase of these products and services.

This order creates a Steering Committee, a Federal Environmental Executive (FEE), and a Task Force, and establishes Agency Environmental Executive (AEE) positions within each agency, to be responsible for ensuring the implementation of this order. The FEE, AEEs, and members of the Steering Committee and Task Force shall be full-time Federal Government employees.

You may need a PDF reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA’s About PDF page to learn more.