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Procurements by the General Services Administration account for 11 percent of all federal government contracts. And the GSA is looking to spend its money on small, sustainable businesses.

The GSA, which manages the federal government’s entire building portfolio, has launched its , which will require businesses contracted with the GSA to report their greenhouse gas emissions. In exchange, the GSA plans to provide incentives for businesses to reduce their waste and pollution. How that relationship will work, however, is not set yet; GSA officials are traveling around the country to listen to business owners’ thoughts on how the agency can make greenhouse gas reporting, and government contracts, more attractive.

On Tuesday, officials met with small business owners in Portland, at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

“The federal government has an opportunity and responsibility to foster innovation,” said Michelle Moore, the Obama administration’s federal environmental executive. “We want to be the customer who turns an idea into a business that creates jobs. Using greenhouse gases as a metric will help us create programs that recognize clean technologies.”

The GSA launched its new effort as a result of President Obama’s Executive Order 13514, which requires all federal agencies to plan and implement new policies and programs to reduce energy use and greenhouse gases. The federal government spends more than $500 billion a year on procurement contracts and has more than 600,000 suppliers. Energy consumption by the GSA alone in 2008 totaled $24 billion, the most of any federal agency.

After talking with business owners, the GSA hopes to cull ideas to incentivize vendors to perform analyses of their greenhouse gas production, according to Nancy Gillis, director of the GSA’s supply chain emissions procurement office. But when a roomful of Oregon business owners on Tuesday were asked whether they report their greenhouse gas emissions, only five of several dozen attendees raised their hands.

Mark Frost of the Clean Technology Trade Alliance commented that his group last year surveyed 800 businesses in New Mexico and fewer than 2 percent had either reported greenhouse gas emissions or knew anything about it.

“New Mexico isn’t Oregon, but that’s a small number,” Frost said. “I suggest a lot of outreach to businesses.”

Education in a standardized manner also will be key, said Dave Meyer, vice president of Northwest operations for SEEDS Global Alliance. The federal government uses multiple calculation tools offered by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative. Federal agencies, under Executive Order 13514, are required to report and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions over time. These tools could also be used by businesses, said Dana Arnold, senior adviser with the GSA Federal Acquisition Service.

All testimony received at Tuesday’s meeting will be used to develop a future pilot program for small businesses. Those that enroll will receive technical assistance from the GSA to measure, report and reduce their greenhouse gases.

The GSA’s program comes at a contentious time for efforts concerning greenhouse gases. House Republican leaders at the start of the 112th Congress shuttered the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which was created in 2006 by U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California, to address climate change and energy issues.

But decreasing the federal government’s energy use, and especially reducing its dependence on oil, is still important, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon said Tuesday at OMSI.

“Oil hit $100 a barrel today,” he said. “Change is coming in terms of how we do business. The bottom line is the federal government needs to lead by example. Greening the supply chain is not just doing what is right; it will bring to scale other opportunities to improve our quality of life and economy.”