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Green Public Procurement
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Green Public Procurement (GPP) is a process where public authorities seek to source goods, services, or works with a reduced environmental impact throughout their life-cycle, compared to other goods, services, or works with the same function.
Green Tenders - An Action Plan on Green Public Procurement, adopted in 2012, is Ireland’s first National Action Plan on GPP. Green Tenders explains that GPP is a tool for sustainable development and ‘involves the integration of environmental criteria into public procurement processes. In specifying such criteria, public authorities encourage the spread of environmental technologies and the development of environmentally sound products. Where possible, public procurement policies should encourage the use of all types of environmentally friendly products – energy efficient, water conserving, recyclable, non-toxic, and low in emissions of volatile organic compounds’.
Green Tenders prioritised eight product / service groups for GPP in Ireland: construction, energy, transport, food and catering services, cleaning products and services, paper, uniforms and other textiles, and ICT. These groups were chosen according to proportion of public expenditure, scope for environmental improvement, potential impact on suppliers, potential for setting an example to private or corporate consumers, political sensitivity, existence of relevant and easy-to-use criteria, and market availability and economic efficiency.
The current Programme for Government includes a number of commitments relating to public procurement, including the development and implementation of a sustainable procurement policy, updating all frameworks in line with green procurement practice, and mandating the inclusion of green criteria in all procurements using public funds.
Climate Action Plan 2019 required the phased introduction of GPP (Action 148). Climate Action Plan 2021 references the Programme for Government commitments to developing and implementing a sustainable procurement policy and updating procurement frameworks in line with green procurement practice, and reviewing food procurement policies. Action 59 reiterates the ambition set out in Climate Action Plan 2019 and again in the Programme for Government regarding the phased introduction of GPP: ‘Mandate the inclusion of green criteria in all procurements using public funds, introducing requirements on a phased basis and providing appropriate support to procurers’. The increased climate ambition in this plan may also indirectly influence public procurement, as public bodies strive to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through a range of approaches that may include low carbon procurement.
Green Public Procurement and the Office of Government Procurement
Sustainable Development Goal 12
Ireland’s Sustainable Development Goals National Implementation Plan 2018-2020 designates the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) as leading on target 12.7 – promote public procurement processes that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities – with Green Tenders indicated as the relevant national policy.
Circular 20/2019
Circular 20/2019: Promoting the use of Environmental and Social Considerations in Public Procurement was developed by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) and the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) in response to Climate Action Plan 2019.
GPP Criteria
To assist in the provision of green criteria that can be incorporated into public procurement in line with Circular 20/2019, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published updated Green Public Procurement Guidance for the Public Sector in September 2021. Launched at the EPA Circular Economy Conference by Minister of State Ossian Smyth, the general guidance is accompanied by GPP criteria for ten sectors:
• Energy-related products
• Food and catering services
• Heating equipment
• ICT products and services
• Cleaning products and services
• Indoor and outdoor lighting
• Design, construction and management of office buildings
• Paper products and printing services
• Textile products and services
• Road transport vehicles and services
The criteria can be copied and pasted directly into tender documents. Methods of verification are provided for each criterion. Technical specifications, selection criteria, award criteria, and contract performance clauses are included, as appropriate for a particular category. The OGP encourages all public bodies to use, as a minimum, the core criteria in procurement, and consider the use of the comprehensive criteria where possible.
Environmental Subgroup of the Strategic Procurement Advisory Group
Circular 20/2019 states that DECC and the OGP will support the implementation of GPP. To this end, DECC and the OGP formed (and co-chair) an Environmental Subgroup of the Strategic Procurement Advisory Group . The subgroup includes expertise from key bodies in the environmental sphere, such as the EPA and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. A current focus of the subgroup is creating greater awareness, and encouraging use of, the updated Irish GPP criteria.
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