The European Commission has produced a Handbook on Green Public Procurement.
It explains in clear, non-technical terms how public purchasers, such as schools, hospitals and national and local administrations, can take into account the environment when buying goods, services and works.
Each year public authorities spend some 16% of EU GDP, around 1,500 billion Euro, on goods, services and works. If they opt for environmentally sound goods, services and works, they will help the EU reach sustainable development. Green purchasing increases demand for green goods, encourages green production and helps environmentally friendly technologies conquer the market. It also considers efficient use of energy and resources as well as waste prevention, thus contributing to saving taxpayer’s money. The new Handbook gives best-practice examples and provides advice all along the steps of a procurement procedure.
The EU’s new Public Procurement Directives, formally adopted on 31 March 2004 make clear that public authorities can in many different ways adopt environmental considerations into their procurement procedures. Yet a recent study examining procurement practices in the EU15 Member States shows that only 19% of all public administrations undertake a significant amount of green purchasing (by using environmental criteria in more than half of their purchases).
