European Commission

How Green is your Public Procurement ?

"Green public procurement means that public purchasers take account of environmental factors when buying products, services or works".
Facts and figures

EU public procurement rules save taxpayers' money

In a market worth over €1.500 billion - representing over 16% of total EU GDP - EU public procurement Directives have reduced the prices paid by public authorities for good and services by more than 30%.

These and other positive results of EU procurement policy have been identified in the European Commission's Report on the economic effects of public procurement (Feb 2004).

Green Public Procurement in the EU-25

The consortium TAKE-5 finalised for the European Commission in May 2006 the report Green Public Procurement in Europe. It highlights that seven EU Member States (Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and UK) - known as the ‘Green-7’ - are currently implementing more elements of GPP than the ‘Other-18’ Member States. This means that they consistently have more tenders with green criteria than the rest within the EU-25.

The ‘Green-7’ are characterised by

  • Strong political drivers and/or national guidelines
  • National programmes (GPP has been the subject of a national programme and the issue has been addressed for a number of years)
  • Information sources (all have GPP websites and information sources available which often contain product related criteria and specifications)
  • Innovative procurement techniques (a majority of the ‘Green-7’ are using dedicated tools, e.g. life-cycle costs as an award criterion, or functional specifications/requests for environmental variants)
  • Purchasing organisations applying environmental management systems (several ‘Green-7’ countries make use of environmental management systems which address GPP)

Europe needs to catch up

Public purchasers are often under the impression that they already apply environmental criteria when purchasing. However, the GPP report shows that only 36% of the tender documents of all 25 Member States actually contain appropriate and legal environmental criteria. Positive exceptions are Sweden and Germany with a rate of more than 60% of all tender documents analysed in the TAKE-5 study including environmental criteria.

Definition of criteria – a crucial factor

Many public tenders contain references to the environment. But these criteria and references are often not well defined and therefore do not result in a greener purchase. One of the main reasons for unclear references is the lack of training in this area – one of the main barriers to GPP.

For instance: 'Computers should be energy efficient' this criterion is not sufficient to allow bidders to make balanced bids and won't allow purchasing authorities to make an objective comparison between bids.

It depends on the type of purchased product or service

Certain categories of purchase are more suitable for greening than others. Professional services such as advertising, general management, research and auditing services seldom contain environmental criteria whereas furniture construction and IT equipment often do. The different levels of GPP between product categories can therefore be considerable.

The Take-5 study has identified following product groups as suitable for 'greening' in the framework of green public procurement, based on the financial and environmental impact and the availability of 'environmental friendly' products in the market place:

  • Cleaning products and services
  • Horticultural services
  • Medical devices – pharmaceuticals
  • (Electrical) machinery - communication equipment
  • Energy
  • Chemical products, rubber, plastic
  • Food products and beverages, Restaurant services
  • Architectural, construction, installation and related consultancy services
  • Sewage- and refuse-disposal services
  • Sanitation and environmental services
  • Transport equipment
  • Office machinery (computers/monitors/printers/copiers)
  • Construction work
  • Construction products (including heating/cooling/lighting appliances)
  • Furniture and other manufactured goods
  • Paper, printed matter, printing services
  • Transport and communication services

Illustrative facts

RELIEF - European Research project on green purchasing

The project RELIEF (Environmental Relief Potential Of Urban Action On Avoidance And Detoxification Of Waste Streams Through Green Public Procurement) was the most comprehensive research project ever on green purchasing in Europe. It was carried out between 2001 and 2003 by a European research consortium and supported by the EC research programme on Environment and Sustainable Development under the key action 'City of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage'.

Some impressive findings can be found in the background document.

Electricity: Greenhouse gas emissions

If all public authorities were to purchase green electricity in place of conventionally generated electricity, the equivalent of over 61 million tonnes CO2, would be saved each year. This figure equates to approximately 18% of EU commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce CO2-equivalent emissions by 340 million tonnes by 2008-2012. (Further information can be found at the European Commission webpage on Greenhouse gas monitoring and reporting)

Organic Food: Nutrification impact

Nutrification is the name of a process, whereby water bodies such as lakes and estuaries receive excessive amounts of nutrients from a variety of sources, primarily agriculture, aquaculture and sewage. Nutrification sets off a cascade of negative environmental changes.

If all public authorities would switch from conventionally produced foodstuffs to organically produced, the environmental relief would add up to 41,560 tonnes of phosphate (PO4-equivalent). This equals the amount currently used every year for over 3.5 million Europeans. Phosphate is one of the main components of organic fertilisers. Over-application of fertilisers causes manifold problems, such as groundwater pollution, surface runoff, and algal blooms.

Desktop computers

The European-wide purchasing of more energy efficient computer models – fulfilling even higher standards than the EnergyStar criteria - would reduce electricity bills and European emissions of greenhouse gases by over 8 million tonnes of CO2–equivalents. (This figure applies to the entire market, not only public purchasers)
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