Indoor Plant Service & Maintenance

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (“Air District”) is seeking professional interior plant maintenance services at its headquarters located at 375 Beale Street, Suite 600, San Francisco, CA. The goal is to maintain healthy, attractive, and well-cared-for interior plants that enhance the workplace environment for staff and visitors while ensuring reliable, consistent service.

The selected contractor will provide routine bi-weekly maintenance, plant health monitoring, replacement of declining plants, and other ancillary services as needed. Interested firms must participate in a mandatory site walk to verify plant quantities, conditions, and service requirements.

Interested firms must demonstrate experience, professionalism, and a strong approach to plant care, providing high-quality service that meets or exceeds industry standards.

The Air District anticipates the contract to commence July 1, 2026 and continue for an initial term of three (3) years. The Air District may extend the contract for two additional one-year terms at its sole discretion.

Background

The Air District is the government agency responsible for protecting air quality in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Air District is tasked with regulating stationary sources of air pollution in the nine counties that surround San Francisco Bay: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southwestern Solano, and southern Sonoma counties. It is governed by a 24-member Board of Directors composed of locally elected officials from each of the nine counties. The Air District’s mission is to improve air quality to protect public health, reduce historical and current environmental inequities, and mitigate climate change and its impacts.

The Air District aims to achieve its mission through many strategic goals, including: reducing and eliminating health problems caused by air pollution, achieving and maintaining air quality standards, leading the Bay Area’s efforts to fight global climate change, creating high-quality regulatory programs, and applying environmental best practices in all operations. To do so, the Air District regulates air pollution emissions from stationary emission sources such as factories, refineries, and power plants, and from smaller facilities like gas stations and dry cleaners. The Air District ensures that such facilities comply with air pollution laws and regulations, provides incentives to replace older, higher-emitting vehicles and equipment with cleaner alternatives, and gives grants and provides outreach to encourage healthy clean air choices by businesses and consumers. The Air District implements these efforts with an equity focus, aiming to reduce air quality disparities and promote environmental justice by targeting local air pollution in overburdened communities.

Project Details

• Reference ID: 2026-010
• Department: Administrative Resources Division
• Department Head: Karen Schkolnick (Director)

Important Dates

• Questions Due: 2026-06-13T00:00:00.000Z
• Answers Posted By: 2026-06-19T00:00:00.000Z

Meetings & Milestones

Evaluation Criteria

• Service Approach & Quality (25 pts) —

  Understanding of the Scope of Work; Quality and comprehensiveness of the proposed maintenance approach; Ability to meet service frequency, plant health standards, and replacement requirements.

• Experience & Qualifications (30 pts) —

  Demonstrated experience providing interior plant maintenance services of similar size and scope; Qualifications of firm and assigned personnel.

• Cost / Price (35 pts) —

  Competitiveness and reasonableness of the proposed all-inclusive monthly maintenance cost; Clarity and completeness of pricing.

• Local Business (5 pts) —

  Preference for firms headquartered within the Air District’s nine-county jurisdiction (“local business”)

• References (5 pts) —

  Quality and applicability of references.

Submission Requirements

• Technical Quote
• Legal Company Name (required)
• Business Address(es) (required) —
  1. Provide the business address of the office nearest to San Francisco, California. 
  2. Provide the address(es) of the office that each of the proposed personnel are based out of if different than the business address provided above.
• Business Telephone Number (required)
• Designated Firm Representative (required) —

  Provide the full name and title of the point of contact for this RFQ.

• E-mail Address (required) —

  Provide the full email address of the point of contact noted above.

• Project Manager (required) —

  Is the project manager that will be assigned different than the designated firm representative noted above?

• Name of Project Manager (required) —

  Provide the full name of the project manager.

• E-mail of Project Manager (required) —

  Provide the full e-mail address of the project manager.

• Minimum Qualifications (required) —

  To be considered responsive, proposals must include:

  1. Confirmation of attendance at the mandatory site walk. 
  2. An all-inclusive monthly maintenance price, covering all labor, materials, replacements, and routine services described in this Scope of Work.
  3. Any assumptions or clarifications regarding service delivery.

  Certify that your firm meets the minimum qualifications set forth in the RFQ.

• Summary (required) —

  State overall approach to Indoor Plant Service & Maintenance, including the objectives and scope of work.

• Experience and Qualifications (required) —

  Describe your firm’s related and relevant experience providing interior plant maintenance services of similar size and scope, if any. Describe the technical capabilities of the firm and the firm’s exposure with working with environmental regulations, if any. Describe your firm's use of sustainable practices in indoor plant service and maintenance (e.g., water conservation, organic fertilizers, integrated pest management, waste reduction). Describe your firm's overall commitment to environmentally responsible and community-focused business practices.

• Project Approach and Methodology (required) —

  Provide a detailed description of the approach and methodology to be used to accomplish the scope of work. Do not simply restate or paraphrase information in this RFQ or the Scope of Work in your response.  

• Project Schedule/Timeline (required) —

  Provide projected milestones or benchmarks for completing the project within the total time allowed.

• Project Organization (required) —

  Describe the proposed management structure, program monitoring procedures, and organization of the proposed team. Provide a statement addressing your firm’s ability and willingness to commit and maintain staffing to successfully provide the services requested in the RFQ.

• Assigned Personnel (required) —

  Provide the following information about the staff to be assigned to the project:

  • List all key personnel assigned to the project by name and role. Provide a description of their background, along with a summary of their experience in providing similar services for governmental agencies, and any specialized expertise they may have. Background descriptions can be a resume, curriculum vitae, or summary sheet. Substitution of project manager or staff will not be permitted without prior written approval of the Air District’s assigned program manager.
  • Provide a statement of the availability of staff in any local office with requisite qualifications and experience to conduct the requested project.
  • Provide a statement of education and training programs provided to, or required of, the staff identified for participation in the project. Make particular mention of, with reference to, experience working with governmental agencies, procedures, and environmental regulations.
• Subcontractors (required) —

  List any subcontractors that will be used and the work to be performed by them. Include the estimated number of hours or percentage of time the subcontractors will spend under the contract.

  If no subcontractors will be used, please respond here with: "N/A"

• References (required) —

  Provide a minimum of three (3) references of other, similar projects including company name or public entity, contact name, title, phone number and e-mail address for all references listed. For each reference, include a description of services provided and dates the services were provided. The Air District reserves the right to contact references to verify and validate the information provided. 

• Retention of Working Papers (required) —

  All working papers are the property of the Air District. Respondent hereby acknowledges that if the respondent firm is awarded the contract, the firm will retain project related papers and related reports for a minimum of five (5) years.

• Conflict of Interest (required) —

  Address possible conflicts of interest or appearance of impropriety regarding other clients of the firm that could be created by providing services to the Air District. Describe procedures to be followed to detect and resolve any conflict of interest or appearance of impropriety. The Air District reserves the right to consider the nature and extent of such work in evaluating the quote. 

  If no conflicts of interest, please respond here with: "N/A"

• GenAI Use and Reporting (required) —

  “Generative AI (GenAI)” means an artificial intelligence system that can generate derived synthetic content, including text, images, video, and audio that emulates the structure and characteristics of the system's training data (Gov. Code § 11549.64.). Respondents must include a statement disclosing:

  • Whether GenAI was used in the preparation of the quote submission; and
  • Whether GenAI is anticipated to be used in the performance of any work under the resulting contract.

  If GenAI will be used during contract performance, the quote must include a brief description of its use.

  If awarded a contract, all work performed must comply with applicable state, federal, and local laws and regulations, including any restrictions or disclosure requirements related to the use of GenAI.

• Local Business Preference (required) —

  Does your firm qualify as a local business? “Local business” means that your firm’s headquarters is located within the nine counties of the Air District’s jurisdiction.

• Bay Area Headquarters Address (required)
• Self-Certification for Local Business (required) —

  Certify that your firm qualifies as a local business. “Local business” means that a firm’s headquarters is located within the nine counties of the Air District’s jurisdiction.

• Cost Proposal
• Cost Proposal (required) —

  Provide the following regarding fees/cost: 

  • List the fully-burdened hourly rates and the total number of hours estimated for each  proposed staff member or whose  job category may be required to perform the work required by this RFQ. In addition, costs should be estimated for each of the components of the Scope of Work. If an annual increase in fees is expected, include the percentage or amount of increase, if any, in the response.
  • List of anticipated reimbursable expenses, such as expenses for travel, presentation materials, supplies, deliveries, black/white and color printouts and copies, faxes, photo scans, copywriting and copyediting services and the rate charged for each.
  • Any other fees or charges.
• Submittal Confirmation
• Additional Information (if needed) —

  If needed, upload any additional information or other essential data that may assist in the evaluation of your quote. 

  NOTE: DO NOT INCLUDE ANY COST INFORMATION HERE

• Submittal Confirmation (required) —

  Respondent hereby certifies that all information provided within this quote is accurate to the best of their knowledge. Respondent acknowledges that they have examined and carefully studied all solicitation documents and any addenda and that they have provided any necessary proof of their authority to submit a quote on behalf of the Company thereby committing the Company to the information contained within.

• Brief Description of Services (required) —

  Briefly describe the services within which you are looking for qualified service providers.

  Provide your response in a format as if filling in the highlighted blank of the statement below:

  The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (“Air District”) seeks proposals from qualified firms to provide _____________________.

• Budget (required) —

  Do you want to include an estimated budget in the request?

• Budget Amount (required) —

  What is the established budget amount for this project?

  NOTE: Please input just the number. Do not type the "$"

• Local Business Preference (required) —

  Do you want to include a preference for local business?

• Technical Proposal Format (required) —

  Select all pieces of the technical proposal that you wish to require. You will be given the ability to modify existing requirements and add any additional requirements as necessary for this individual RFP by updating the Proposal Format, Content, and Submittal (Vendor Questionnaire) section.

• Cost Proposal Format (required) —

  Do you wish to utilize the electronic pricing table available within OpenGov Procurement? Do you wish to obtain a full breakdown of fees and other costs submitted by Proposers within the Vendor Questionnaire? You may choose to use both if you wish.

  An example of when you may wish to use both is to obtain consistent pricing for a project through the electronic pricing table for an easier evaluation process but you may also wish to receive a more in depth breakdown via an uploaded file as well.

• Evaluation Criteria (required) —

  Select the evaluation criteria that you will be applying to the review and scoring of the proposals received in response to this RFP. The evaluation committee will be scoring all criteria that you select here and any additional criteria you add to this individual RFP. You may add additional criteria and modify the options for these later in the creation process.

• Applicable Contract? (required) —

  Which contract type is the applicable type that will be awarded as a result of this RFP?