The EPA’s New Environmental Digital Services Marketplace

Over the past year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has undertaken a broad initiative to transform the way it delivers digital services. We’ve been working hand-in-hand with the EPA to make this transformation a success by supporting such programs as eManifest.

Working with 18F is just one of many ways in which the EPA is trying to build greater capacity for delivering valuable, high-quality digital services. They are also working on ways to contract with high-quality digital service vendors, which is why the EPA just released a Request for Information (RFI) for creating an Environmental Digital Services marketplace.

Modeled after 18F’s Agile Delivery Services marketplace, the EPA plans to create a marketplace of vendors who specialize in modern digital practices such as human-centered design, agile software development, and DevOps. Vendors who qualify for this marketplace will then be able to bid on EPA contracts for digital services.

The EPA is looking to distinguish this marketplace from previous efforts by evaluating vendors based on their expertise in environmental business issues and their pattern of environmentally sustainable behavior. In October, when we announced our Digital Economy consulting practice, we talked about the potential benefits of combining industry expertise with digital expertise to achieve policy goals, and we’re excited that the EPA is trying this with the environment.

We’re excited to see how the EPA’s new Environmental Digital Services marketplace initiative unfolds, and we encourage all interested vendors to respond to the RFI.This post was originally published on the 18F blog by Chris Cairns, an 18F team member.