Green Public Procurement: New Report

At Spend Network, we are always on the look out for governments, think tanks, research bodies, and other organisations who are working with public procurement to increase transparency, and improve outcomes of for communities through public spend.

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) have presented their latest research on Green Public Procurement (GPP) in the EU. Researchers reviewed green purchasing policies and related solutions that governments can adopt to accelerate decarbonisation in their countries and meet climate goals, and put forward seventeen policy recommendations.

SIE’s work spans climate, water, air and land-use issues, governance, the economy, gender and health. Stakeholder involvement is at the heart of their efforts to build capacity, strengthen institutions and equip partners for long-term change. They convene decision-makers, academics and practitioners and engage with policy processes, development action and business practice worldwide.

In their report Green public procurement: a lever for mitigating European greenhouse gas emissions, they identify that:

*Public procurement can be deployed as a strategic policy tool that can accelerate industry decarbonisation, achieve significant greenhouse gas emission reductions and reduce governments’ overall environmental impact.

• Procurement officers need a clear mandate and capacity at the organisational level to play a strategic role in fulfilling sustainability targets.

• The EU can support the implementation of impactful Green Public Procurement practices through standardised reporting methods and tools and by instituting mandatory requirements for key sectors.

• Countries and regions across the EU have demonstrated a variety of innovative approaches to green procurement that could be scaled up.

Further to this, in their full report, they offer seventeen policy recommendations key to ensuring a broad uptake of Green Public Procurement across the EU:

EU= European Union

MS=Member states

1. Foster collaboration and coordination to align environmental and economic targets with procurement policies and practices (EU + MS):

• across national ministries and agencies

• with and within EU institutions

• across Member States

2. Establish stronger international collaboration to harmonise approaches and accelerate progress across nations (EU + MS)

3. In collaboration with trade associations, set product-specific carbon baseline values and targets, and establish mandatory product level minimum carbon criteria that are gradually sharpened (EU)

4 Introduce reward systems for best performing offers that are voluntary for the bidder (EU)

5. Expand existing EU Directives to include embedded emissions (EU)

6. Impose EU-level minimum penalty thresholds if established criteria are not met (EU)

7. Develop a harmonised system for GPP definitions, monitoring and reporting that will support (EU): • following up on the use of environmental considerations in MS’ procurements • assessing the environmental impact (incl. GHG emissions) of bids.

8. Set mandatory annual reporting on environmental impacts and uptake from MS’ public procurement (EU)

9. Develop tools that allow procuring entities to monitor GPP uptake and impacts at the organisational level, supporting alignment of internal goals, incentives and reporting efforts (EU + MS)

Facilitating implementation

10. Further develop, harmonise and promote available tools and support material to ensure good accessibility to procurers (EU)

11. Develop standardised and reliable methods to calculate and report on product-specific environmental data (EU)

12. Develop harmonised training programs, including components that support assessment of innovation potential as well as actual procurement needs (EU + MS)

13. Simplify terminology and/or provide implementation guidelines for EU Procurement Directives (EU) Uptake, mandate and resources

14. Ensure that procurers have a clear mandate and adequate financial resources to play a strategic role in implementing GPP practices (MS)

15. Develop educational material demonstrating GPP’s societal and monetary value to build stronger political buy-in (EU) Collaboration

16. Deepen public-private collaboration through sectoral buyers’ groups to develop shared visions and strategies (EU + MS)

17. Enhance collaboration between procurement officers (MS)

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