A--NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD SOLE SOURCE PURCHASE ORDER

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Air and Radiation (OAR), Office of Atmospheric Programs (OAP), Climate Protection Partnerships Division (CPPD), ENERGY STAR Residential Branch (ESRB) intends to award a sole source fixed-price purchase order under the authority of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13, Simplified Acquisition Procedures to the Systems Building Research Alliance (SBRA) to revise the guidelines used by manufacturing plants, builders, installers and home energy raters to verify that factory-built homes qualify for the ENERGY STAR label. SBRA?s management and staff have detailed knowledge of the ENERGY STAR program and its technical guidelines for building and installing factory built homes, having applied to and been approved by ENERGY STAR as a national quality assurance provider for ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured and modular homes. SBRA also helped develop in-plant manufacturing, on-site construction/installation, and quality control procedures that laid the groundwork for what became the guidelines used by all plants to construct ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured and modular homes. Thus SBRA has intimate knowledge of both the technical guidelines and quality control processes that plants, builders, installers, and quality control personnel need to adhere to in order to consistently design and build ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured and modular homes. SBRA is also the research arm of the manufactured housing industry. In this role, SBRA has detailed knowledge of how the manufactured and modular h ousing industries work. SBRA also works closely with manufactured and modular homebuilders, retailers, installers, industry trade associations, and state/local energy efficiency programs to combine the resources of these organizations to be more effective in jointly building, promoting, and installing ENERGY STAR qualified manufactured and modular homes as an opportunity to reduce energy consumption and improve air quality. The above makes SBRA uniquely qualified to perform the work to be ordered under this requirement. NO SOLICITATION OR REQUEST FOR QUOTE (RFQ) IS AVAILABLE. Notwithstanding, any firm that believes it is capable of meeting EPA's requirement as stated herein may submit a capability statement, which if received within ten (10) calendar days of the date of this announcement will be considered. Responses to this posting must be in writing and provide clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government. A determination not to compete the proposed purchase order based upon the responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. All questions should be directed to Sharron K. Doherty via the e-mail link provided.