GREEN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT

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LA21 Israel Center training seminar
GREEN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT IN PRACTICE
Aure Adell, ICLEI Tel Aviv, 28-30 May 2006
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1.What is SPP?
Sustainable development is development that
meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs. Source World
Commission on the Environment and Development,
1983
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1. What is SPP?

• The production and use of products or services
  purchased inevitably have an impact on the
  environment and society.
• If we want to achieve sustainable development we
  need to purchase goods, services and works that
  are more environmentally friendly and socially
  fair.
• We can do it through imposing environmental and
  social requirements in the procurement process

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1. What is SPP?

• Sustainable public procurement is the procurement
  of goods, services and works by public
  authorities integrating in the process
• not only economic considerations, best value for
  money, price, quality, availability,
  functionality
• but also environmental considerations, the
  effects on the environment that the product
  and/or service has over its whole life-cycle
• and/or social criteria, buying to producers that
  comply with WTO rules, employing long term
  jobless workers...
• doing that, organisations use their buying power
  to give
• a signal to the market in favour of sustainability

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2. Evolution of SPP in Europe
More than 20 years ago By local authorities in
Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands... Mainly on
environmental issues rather than social Many
difficulties due to - the lack of information
about the environmental characteristics of
products and services and - legal uncertainty on
how to do it But they didnt give up!
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2. Evolution of SPP in Europe
Procurement Directives didnt explain how to
introduce environmental and social criteria
(1993) Constant pressure from local authorities
and starting recognition from national
governments (recognition in environmental
policies, development of tools/ instruments,
setting up targets) Case-law from the European
Court of Justice (90s) Interpretative
communications from EC (2001)
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Potential of sustainable procurement
Public authorities in Europe spend annually more
than 1 trillion (aproximately 16 of EU Gross
Domestic Product) This huge purchasing power
represents a great potential to

• Move the market towards more sustainable
  production
• Influence the behaviour of companies and people
• Contribute actively to environment protection

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Potential of sustainable procurement

• If all European public authorities bought green
  electricity, 18 of the EU Kyoto commitments
  could be met
• Over 2.8 million desktop computers are purchased
  each year by public authorities in the European
  Union. The purchasing of more energy efficient
  models would reduce electricity bills and
  European emissions of greenhouse gases by over
  830.000T CO2
• If all European public authorities opted for
  efficient toilets and taps in their buildings,
  this would reduce water consumption by 200
  million tonnes/year
• (Relief project 2001-2003)

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2. Evolution of SPP in Europe
GPP is a high priority in EU political
agenda 2003, Communication on Integrated Product
Policy ?EC urges to adopt National Action Plans
for GPP 2004, New Procurement Directives 2005,
Report on implementation of ETAP ? also stresses
the need of National Action plans on GPP EC will
promote GPP http//ec.europa.eu/environment/gpp/in
dex.htm (developing a website structuring
existing information, a training toolkit,
awareness raising events, regular benchmarking)
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2. Evolution of SPP in Europe

• Green 7 Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany,
  Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK
• minimum 40 of all published tenders during the
  past year included environmental criteria
• HOWEVER many of these tenders were NOT fully
  compliant with EU law
• Other 18 countries less than 30 of green
  tenders

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3. Benefits of sustainable procurement Environment
al and social benefits

• Global
• Reduction of negative impacts on the environment
  (Contribution to the protection of the global
  environment)
• Contribution to sustainable development in other
  parts of the world
• Local
• Improvement of environmental and social
  conditions
• Improvement of working environment

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3. Benefits of green public procurement Financial
benefits

• Financial savings (life-cycle costs)
• Achievement of higher levels of sustainability
  for the same money ? best value for money
• Improvement in the quality of products and
  services

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3. Benefits of green public procurement Organisati
on's benefits

• More efficiency/ transparency in the procurement
  process structure
• Improvement of the political image and legitimacy
• Anticipation of new legislation
• A more open debate
• Better inter-organisation co-operation with the
  involvement of different departments/services
  (finance, environment, industry...)

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4. Main barriers to implement SPP
Barriers to implementation
Lack of political backing
Lack of knowledge on how to carry out GPP
Concern about financial implications
Lack of systematic implementation
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4. Main barriers to implement SPP
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4. Tools to identify barriers to SPP
Tool 3 of LEAP project www.iclei-europe.org/leap
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(No Transcript)
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5. Successful cases City of Pori (Finland)
1992 creation of Pori Sustainable Development
project between Procurement and Environment
departments Creation of a task team - 2
leaders - 6 persons of different departments -
1 liaison person (eco-consultant) Assignation of
30 environmental contact persons to distribute
the information from the consultant to all
departments
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Successful cases City of Pori (Finland)
Consultant - assesses the procurement
operation - communicates environmental
information Up to now, green criteria exist for
55 product groups With their experience they
helped to develop an internet-based decision
support system for environmentally friendly
procurement (containing up-to-date information on
legislation, general environmental knowledge,
information on products and green criteria to
help the purchasers). Theyve launched a national
GPP network
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Successful cases City of Kolding (Denmark)

• 1998, beginning of the implementation of GPP in
  Kolding.
• The City Council approved an integrated
  procurement policy.
• The managing directors approve an implementation
  strategy.
• Today GPP is integrated in the procurement of
  goods, services and construction, ensuring a
  compliance to environmental demands (90 of good
  contracts).
• Green procurement has been implemented without
  supply of extra economical funds, the total
  budget has been reduced by 10 the last 10
  years.
• Modifications of the procurement procedures was
  necessary
• to avoid an increase in the total procurement
  budget.

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Successful cases City of Kolding (Denmark)

• The management system was developed before
  identifying legal and environmental aspects and
  its CRUTIAL

Call for Tender
Legal compliance Sustainable demands and criteria
Demands on function and services
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Successful cases City of Ferrara (Italy)
1994 concern raised by parents about food quality
in municipal kindergartens ? they wanted organic
food Creation of a commission to study the
possibilities (constituted by parents, public
health representative, chemical expert and
provincial agricultural sector representative) Ide
ntification of some products which could be
organic without increasing the costs too
much 1998 organic procurement systematised by
launching a special call for tenders for
kindergarten schools Within 2 years, 50 of food
purchased was organic!
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Successful cases City of Ferrara (Italy)
In 2000 a second call for tender was published
for schools After the greening the tender for
food, the green procurement activities have
spread to other departments in the local
administration, e.g. cleaning services Environment
al requirements are developed based on -
criteria set in ecolabels - experiences of other
European local authorities Ferrara joined the
Procura Campaign as a Founding Authority in 2004
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Successful cases City of Barcelona (Spain)
1997-99 Materials and waste eco-audits in
different municipal buildings 2001 there was a
need to communicate the results ? creation of an
informal working group to create a Green Office
guide with information on how to reduce
environmental impacts during the procurement, use
and disposal of office products. Identification
of a few product groups where to start working
paper products, office stationary and IT
equipment Set up of a formal working group
involving advice from external consultants
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Successful cases City of Barcelona (Spain)
Definition of criteria for those product
groups Many dissemination and training
actions Step by step - more internal interest
from other departments ? demands - more political
support ? Green Officegovernment measure 2002
Creation of Green Office Programme
website 2004 Joined the Procura Campaign as a
Founding Authority Until 2006 have green
criteria for 12 products groups
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5. Tools for SPP
Tool 1 of LEAP project www.iclei-europe.org/leap
The City Council is committed to the following
procurement policy 1. It could start by a
general commitment 2. Then the statement should
become more specific, including possibly targets
and commitments NOT to do something 3. Indicate
how you will implement this policy 4. Indicate
how you will communicate and deliver the policy
within the organisation, the supply chain and the
public in general and provide training 5. State
how you will monitor the implementation of your
policy and how you will improve it 6. Budget
implications
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5. Methodology to introduce SPP

• Tackling the main barriers
• Lack of political backing
• - convince politicians of the benefits of SPP,
  find allies to support SPP
• Lack of knowledge
• - provide information about how to introduce
  green criteria in tender documents, green
  criteria for product groups,
• Financial implications
• - find out the market availability of products,
  think about life-cycle-costs
• Systematic implementation
• - design a procedure to implement SPP in all
  departments
• gt Need to prioritise and set targets

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5. Methodology to introduce SPP The Procura
Campaign
Barriers to implementation
Milestone Process to ensure continuous improvement
Criteria set to ensure cost-neutrality
Procura Solutions
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5. Methodology to introduce SPP The Procura
Campaign

• Political awareness raising and commitment
• Approach to enable gradual implementation through
  the Milestone process
• Financially neutral Increasing sustainability
  without increasing costs
• Procura ready-to-use European criteria for 6
  product groups

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5. Procura CampaignMilestones process
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5. Procura CampaignMilestone 1 Procurement
Inventory

• What are the local environmental and social
  priorities?
• On which products/ services is spending the
  highest?
• For which products/ services are environmental
  impacts the highest?
• Which actors are involved?
• Are green criteria set by whom?
• Consider the market situation

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5. Procura CampaignMilestone 2 Target setting

• Targets are important to give procurers full
  political support, to measure the progress
  achieved and to send clear signals to the market.
• Targets have to be
• technically achievable, measurable, politically
  and time realistic but also challenging and based
  on the baseline inventory.

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5. Procura CampaignMilestone 3 Action Plan
development

• It takes time, not all products can be greened
  at once
• Contract periods, etc have to be taken into
  account
• Responsibilities must be assigned
• Build on key criteria
• Consider the need of training, dialogue with
  suppliers, etc.

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5. Procura CampaignMilestone 4 Implementation
of Action Plan

• Carrying out the procurement action
• The campaign provides ready-to-use criteria to
  make implementation easier
• Necessary to have a leading department to ensure
  implementation
• Development of parallel activities such as
  training and communication for effective
  implementation

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5. Procura CampaignMilestone 5 Monitoring and
reporting

• Important to
• - Assess achievements and report them to the
  public
• It is easier if the contracts have foreseen
  progress indicators (to be elaborated by the
  providers)
• From the results achieved the progress can be
  checked and new targets can be set

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7. Sources of information

• Given the complexity of environmental impacts
  related to procurement, and the time and resource
  constraints procurers work with, it is vital to
  draw on the expertise and experiences of others
• Variety of information sources exist that can
• Provide hints on prioritising products and the
  main impacts to consider
• Provide actual sustainability criteria for direct
  use in calls for tender
• Provide practical information from real
  experiences

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Further Information

• Websites
• www.procuraplus.org
• www.iclei-europe.org/procurement
• E-mail
• aure.adell_at_iclei-europe.org