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57.0 Green Public Procurement<br />

57.1 Introduction<br />

The European Commission uses the following definition for green public procurement:<br />

846<br />

29/09/09<br />

“Green public procurement means that public purchasers take account <strong>of</strong><br />

environmental factors when buying products, services or works”.<br />

European and national legislation strictly governs public procurement in order to<br />

ensure the following three main objectives are achieved:<br />

� best value for money;<br />

� equal treatment <strong>of</strong> bidders; and<br />

� transparency <strong>of</strong> contract specifications and criteria.<br />

Green public procurement accounts for environmental issues through the contract by<br />

ensuring value for money.<br />

The environmental impact <strong>of</strong> a good or service can be displayed through eco-labelling<br />

or environmental management system certification. Eco-labelling is very <strong>of</strong>ten<br />

informed through Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) calculations. LCA proves that the products<br />

chosen, and eco-labelled, have a reduced environmental impact throughout their life<br />

cycle. This also demonstrates that green procurement is a cost-effective process<br />

when life-time, not just purchase costs, are taken account <strong>of</strong>. Eco-labelling, is usually<br />

voluntary and requires the product to be certified by a third party, having reached a<br />

certain environmental quality standard. The best-known <strong>of</strong> the eco-labels is the<br />

European label, which is a flower, whilst other successful systems are operating in<br />

Scandinavia, whose logo is the Nordic Swan, and Germany which use a Blue Angel<br />

logo. 1052 Also, environmental management systems such as EMAS and ISO140001<br />

are used as recognisable certification systems. In addition, several Member States<br />

have compiled databases <strong>of</strong> accredited green products and links to possible<br />

suppliers. 1053<br />

Green public procurement (GPP) is defined somewhat differently to sustainable<br />

procurement, which aims to account for social, ethical and environmental issues<br />

throughout the procurement process, although frequently the terms are used<br />

interchangeably.<br />

1052 European Commission (2004) Buying Green! – A Handbook on Environmental Public Procurement,<br />

Available: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/gpp/pdf/buying_green_handbook_en.pdf<br />

1053 ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability (2007) The Procura+ Manual: A Guide to Cost-Effective<br />

Sustainable Public Procurement, 2 nd Edition, Available:<br />

http://www.procuraplus.com/fileadmin/template/projects/procuraplus/New_website/Printed_Manual<br />

/Procura__Manual_complete.pdf

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