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Sustainable Public Procurement: Towards a low‐carbon economy

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6 <strong>Sustainable</strong> <strong>Public</strong> <strong>Procurement</strong>: <strong>Towards</strong> a low carbon <strong>economy</strong><br />

procured, level of decentralization in the procurement process<br />

etc., which facilitate or restrict an easy adoption of energy<br />

efficiency within the procurement process. (See chapter III for<br />

details). The study also studied the existing and possible<br />

influence of certain ongoing public processes with respect to<br />

transparency, sustainability, small scale industry promotion. Like<br />

other external factors, such processes can have both a positive as<br />

well negative implications for internalising energy efficiency in<br />

the public procurement process.<br />

There are several challenges to internalising energy efficiency<br />

within the procurement process of public sector companies. In<br />

terms of regulatory impediment, multiplicity of institutions with<br />

roles not clearly defined in terms of their regulatory authority<br />

results in overlapping functions and jurisdictions. Different rules<br />

and guidelines are not always in harmony with each other. For<br />

instance, the stringent guidelines issued by the Central Vigilance<br />

Commission (CVC) have had a negative impact on the managers<br />

in terms of curtailing their operational freedom to deviate from<br />

the guidelines or explore the flexibility provided within the<br />

General Finance Rules (GFR) to go for “best value for money”<br />

and opt for energy efficient goods. In the absence of a tracking<br />

service for nature and scale of procurement, a harmonized policy<br />

formulation in incorporating energy in public procurement<br />

becomes difficult. Besides audit, compliance with other<br />

government directives such as preferences and reservations may<br />

cause an impediment to a successful implementation of energy<br />

efficiency within the procurement process.<br />

Capacity of suppliers to provide energy efficient options in viable<br />

costs is also crucial as it requires a large amount of financial as<br />

well as technical capacity. Market based instruments have an<br />

important role to play in creating a market for energy efficient<br />

products and thus adopting sustainability criteria like energy<br />

efficiency within the procurement process. Instruments such as<br />

the energy star rating by Bureau of Energy efficiency (BEE)<br />

emerged as a good option to explore in this regard. Since often<br />

procurer, beneficiary and the supplier are all different agents, it<br />

poses serious challenges to the promotion and financing of<br />

energy efficiency. An emerging trend in public procurement has<br />

been with respect to outsourcing of procurement. While<br />

experience in other countries may show outsourcing as a more<br />

sustainable option, in the Indian context, it could lead to<br />

obstacles in ensuring that energy efficiency or any environmental<br />

criterion is adopted within the procurement process. (See<br />

Chapter III)<br />

T E R I Report No. 2007GL01

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