This is prime opportunity to integrate sustainability
in the contingency contracting arena for life support
services.
Technology Insertion
Many large acquisition endeavors become an in-
vestment not only for the government but also for the
contracting company in terms of expansion of their
portfolio through successful product development.
Companies want their products to be their calling
cards and indeed, past performance is often a crite-
ria in the selection process of future contracts. As the
global market for renewable energy systems and other
sustainability efforts increases, industry will focus
their R&D at an increasing rate to meet this demand
and will want to showcase their success. All of those
factors make insertion of technological advancements
into defense procurement a powerful tool to achieve
sustainability goals. The report on the 2010 QDR by
Hadley and Perry, “QDR in Perspective,” recom-
mends inserting technological advances in the acqui-
sition process in no more than 5 to 7 years due to the
pace of technology maturation (Hadley and Perry
2010, 92). However, due to the overwhelming global
demand for renewable energy, the advancements are
likely to appear more rapidly. In order to utilize these
advancements, the FAR provides a mechanism called
the Value Engineering Change Proposal (VECP).
Language can be inserted in the contract that can en-
courage VECPs. Then, during the development of the
system if the contractor identifies and develops a pro-
posal to update an existing design such as a more re-
silient materiel, simplification of a component design
or switch to a multifunctional component then the