A new study for the European Commission has reported on the extent to which environment credentials are taken into account in a meaningful way during public procurement in the 25 EU Member States. The report also identified the best twelve product groups to target for ‘green’ procurement. Among its recommendations were that Member States should set national targets and specify the number of environment criteria to be included in tender documents.
Depending upon how this progresses, opportunities may be created for those with suitable ‘green’ products and services.
Conversely, it could pose a threat to ‘traditional’ products and services, as well as to the financial modelling of procurement contracts. Interested parties would therefore be well advised to monitor future developments closely.
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Many services and goods, including computers, buildings and public transport, can impact significantly on the environment. As public authorities across the EU are estimated to spend 16 % of EU-wide GDP on procurement, the EU and national governments are looking to use public purchasing as a policy instrument to reduce or prevent these adverse impacts, by requiring public authorities to give more weight to environment considerations when making purchasing decisions. Under the Commission's Communication on Integrated Product Policy (IPP), all Member States are encouraged to draft national action plans on green public procurement by 2006. In addition, the commission has published a handbook on opportunities in green public procurement (GPP).
Despite these measures, a new study for the European Commission has concluded that environment credentials are taken into account in a meaningful way during public procurement in only seven out of the 25 EU Member States. In these seven countries, which include Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and the UK, 40-70% of major public tenders in the last year have included environment criteria. The new study identified twelve product groups as the best targets for GPP, based on the availability of environment criteria or their potential high impact. These were sewage and disposal services, sanitation and recycling, paper, printing services, office machinery, furniture, food products and catering, construction work, transport equipment and electrical machinery and medical devices.
Political support and the availability of specific information sources and training programmes were important factors in encouraging GPP. Another way of stimulating GPP was to request conventional bids alongside those designed to lessen any adverse environment impacts, so that contracting authorities could evaluate which offered the best value. The report recommended that Member States should set non-binding national targets for GPP, derived from the performance of the seven best Member States, with at least 30% of public bodies setting environmental conditions in tenders, rising to 70% after three years. Other recommendations involve specifying the number of environment criteria to be included in tender documents and setting up training programmes. It also says that there should be a variety of other targets, including individual ones for different types of public body.
The next step will involve finalising the study for presentation in April 2006. It will include examples of good GPP practices, and information on life- cycle costs of products. The Commission will then consider the final report before publishing its recommendations, which it says will be aimed at overcoming the obstacles to green public procurement.
Depending upon how this progresses, opportunities may be created for those with suitable ‘green’ products and services. Conversely, it could pose a threat to ‘traditional’ products and services, as well as to the financial modelling of procurement contracts. Interested parties would therefore be well advised to monitor future developments closely.
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The original publication date for this article was 11/11/2005.
