The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's (EERE) Product Governance Team (PGT) reviews and approves all publications, exhibits, logos, infographics and templates for all EERE communications products from staff, laboratories, and contractors.

Communication leads or support staff should submit products for PGT approval to the EERE Communications mail box. A designated PGT member will provide final publishing approval, which is required for ALL publications and logos. 

For the review and approval process for EERE's websites, see Web Project Process and Approvals.

Before You Start Your Project

Before you contact the PGT, decide your project's scope and goals. Answer some key questions:

  • Should EERE or a partnering organization develop this communications product?
  • Under what brand should this be produced: EERE, an approved sub brand, or a lab? If a new brand is required, first consider whether the existing identifiers, logos, and templates meet your needs. If not, get approval for the new brand before you develop your product.
  • Who is the audience? What is the most effective way to reach that audience? For example, is a fact sheet appropriate to share a success story with industry? Are other communication methods more fitting, such as a digital newsletter, presentation, web page, or web card?

Which Products Does the PGT Review?

Plan for a final approval with the PGT lead. If the product warrants discussion, then the PGT lead will schedule a meeting. (We no longer require a Phase I and Phase II process; only one approval step is needed.)

The PGT lead will readily approve the following:

  • Regularly published products such as annual reports and recurring fact sheets with minor updates, merit reviews, and newsletters.
  • Technical reports that:
    • do not cover a topic that is highly visible with stakeholders
    • are not politically sensitive
    • are not high impact.

These products below require a more thorough review:

  • EERE office, subprogram, and specialty identities, logos, and icons
  • New templates
  • Outreach publications including fact sheets, brochures, booklets, e-books, and products that use non-standard branding, custom design, or introduce a new series
  • Exhibits
  • Technical reports with EERE branding that cover a topic that is highly visible with stakeholders, is politically sensitive, or has high impact
  • Products paid for by EERE to support EERE offices, activities, and partnerships that have partner logos or branding
  • Infographics

The following products do not need approval:

  • Powerpoint presentations.
  • Logos that have previously been approved.
  • Newsletters using standard GovDelivery templates. (If the branding varies, it should go to the Web Governance Team for a review.) 

Product Review Process Roles and Responsibilities

  • EERE Product Governance Team: Accountable for ensuring that EERE develops high quality, well-targeted, current, and identifiable materials that are appropriately disseminated and updated. Can be reached via the EERE Communications mailbox.
  • Subject Matter Expert: May or may not be involved in the PGT process. Develops the product's content and ensures it aligns with both the goals of EERE and the respective EERE office.
  • EERE Office, Contractor, or Laboratory Requestor and Communications Lead: Responsible for coordinating with the EERE Office Communications Lead prior to requesting PGT approval to ensure the product fits into office's communications strategy. Responsible for implementing the project and meeting EERE product requirements.
  • EERE Office Communications Lead: Coordinates with the PGT for their office products and articulates how each product fits into the office’s communications strategy. Responsible for ensuring the product adheres to EERE identity and content requirements before the product is submitted for PGT review.

Approval Instructions

PLEASE NOTE: All new logo, brand, and identifier requests will be denied until after the DOE brand redesign is launched. If you need an exception to this guidance, have the federal project lead contact Liz Penniman directly.

  1. Ask the federal project lead to send your product to the EERE Comms mailbox and provide any necessary background information and your deadline.
  2. The PGT team will review and provide approval within 48 hours or let you know if a meeting is needed to discuss your product. 
  3. During the meeting, be prepared to define your product's audience, purpose, format, and reason for needing a new deliverable.

Before developing a new logo or graphic, you must first get approval from the PGT. This ensures that the logo will align with DOE branding and policies and will adhere to trademark rules and regulations. After receiving approval to proceed with the development of a logo, you may begin graphic work.  

After graphic work is finished, send the final version to the EERE Communications mailbox for final approval. You may not use any logo until final approval is given. At least one of the formats must be in a vector graphics format, such as EPS or AI. 

Approved Graphics and Requests for Use

If you require any EERE graphics, including logos, icons, and identifiers, to support work for EERE, you may request them from the EERE Communications mailbox.  If you work for EERE or one of its contractors, you can download approved graphics from the EERE i2 intranet.

If you have questions, send an email to the EERE Communications mailbox.

Publishing Your Product

As a government agency, EERE is required to use a Government Printing Office (GPO)-approved printing office. Typically this means using either DOE Headquarters Print Services or a printing office at a national laboratory. Follow the guidance on the following pages:

If you have any questions about obtaining publication numbers or preparing files for printers at DOE headquarters, contact Ken Sobczak.

Submitting Documents to OSTI via E-Link

Effective Oct. 1, 2023, the EERE Publications Library has been retired.

All publications with any level of scientific or technical information (STI)—including fact sheets, pamphlets, technical reports, and third-party validation—must be submitted directly to the Office of Science and Technical Information (OSTI) through its E-Link portal. Adding publications to E-Link is not optional—it is a requirement by Congress.

EERE-branded publications must still go through PGT approval prior to uploading to OSTI via E-Link. OSTI will notify both the STI manager, Joe Lucas, and the PGT lead of every EERE document uploaded to OSTI.

Requirements and Best Practices

  • Before beginning a submission, you will need:
    • DOE contract/award number (if applicable)
    • DOI for the accepted publication
    • Publicly accessible link or digital copy of the final accepted peer-reviewed publication
  • If you are uploading a document that has no DOE, lab, or other GPO-approved number, request a number from Ken Sobczak.  Even if it does not appear on the publication, the publication number should be entered in E-Link.
  • You will find instructions specific to each type of STI product linked at the top of each announcement notice. Clicking the question mark following the title of a specific field will direct you to instructions relevant to that field.
  • DOE Order 241.1B requires that DOE-funded STI include attribution to the sponsoring program with wording including the U.S. Department of Energy, the DOE program office (EERE), and the program office's subprogram(s) funding the research (WETO, WPTO, AMMTO, etc.).
  • It is the responsibility of submitting organizations and their respective releasing officials to ensure that no Protected Personally Identifiable Information is contained in STI reports and products submitted to OSTI.

A full video walkthrough of the OST E-Link submission process is also viewable on Youtube:

Video Url
The Department of Energy’s Public Access Plan requires submission of final, peer-reviewed accepted manuscripts resulting from research funded by DOE.
Video by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science and Technical Information

Answers to commonly asked questions are available via the E-Link FAQ page.

For additional E-Link technical assistance, please contact E-Link Product Manager Kim Buckner.