Sustainable Public Procurement News

This page will provide the latest news and events for procurers on sustainable public procurement.

EU GPP Helpdesk Webinar: Reserved contracts and sustainable public procurement

This webinar will explore how reserved contracts can help public buyers achieve their social objectives. It will also provide concrete examples and tips on how contracting authorities can use reserved contracts to implement their SRPP strategies and plans. For more information and to register for the webinar please visit here.

Date: 11 June 2025

Time: 09:00 - 10:30

Climate Action Plan 2025 Published

Climate Action Plan 2025 builds upon last year's Plan by refining and updating the measures and actions required to deliver the carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings and it should be read in conjunction with Climate Action Plan 2024. The Plan provides a roadmap for taking decisive action to halve Ireland’s emissions by 2030 and achieve climate neutrality by no later than 2050, as committed to in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021. Climate Action Plan 2025 can be found here.

GPP Case Studies

The EPA has worked with public sector and semi-state bodies to develop practical case studies to showcase the implementation of GPP in the Irish public sector. These case studies provide an insight into the challenges and opportunities of implementing GPP as well as details of the criteria used.

The EPA will continue this engagement in 2025 and add to the list of case studies. The case studies can be found here.

EU GPP Helpdesk Webinars

The European Commission’s Green Public Procurement (GPP) Helpdesk host multiple webinars each year. Information on upcoming webinars can be found here on this page. For recordings of previous webinars please search for past events under the Status filter on the Events page here.

GPP Criteria Search Updated

GPP Criteria Search has been updated in line with the updated national GPP Guidance from the EPA. Earlier this year, the EPA published the third edition of national guidance to reflect changes in policy and legislation (as of April 2024). Nine of the national criteria sets were updated (all excluding Office Buildings) and a new criteria set on Furniture was published. These changes are now reflected in GPP Criteria Search and can be accessed here.

EPA Publish Updated and New National GPP Guidance

The EPA has published the third edition of national guidance to reflect changes in policy and legislation (as of April 2024). Nine of the national criteria sets have been updated (all excluding Office Buildings) and a new criteria set on Furniture has been published. The updated national guidance and criteria sets can be found here.

Green Public Procurement Strategy and Action Plan 2024 - 2027

The new Green Public Procurement Strategy and Action Plan ‘Buying Greener: Green Public Procurement Strategy and Action Plan 2024-2027’ has been published. Further information on the new strategy and action plan can be found here.

Opportunities and approaches for Sustainable Public Procurement

The Office of Government Procurement has published ‘Opportunities and approaches for Sustainable Public Procurement: A reference for public procurement practitioners and policy makers’. This reference, for the first time, brings together in one place the wide range of international, European, and national policies and guidance across both green and socially responsible public procurement.

The press release can be found here.

The Sustainable Public Procurement reference is available here.

Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) handbook on Green Public Procurement in Construction Projects

In April 2023, the IGBC published a handbook on Implementation of Circularity, WLC and LCC in Public Construction Projects,which introduces some of the key green indicators that should be applied within the procurement of public construction projects, in addition to the energy efficiency requirements in Building Regulations Technical Guidance Documents Part L.

Social Enterprises in Ireland – A Baseline Data Collection Exercise

A reserve contract allows for a public body to ‘reserve’ a contract, or elements thereof, to certain types of suppliers. A reserved contract can be retained for Social Enterprises, the Department of Rural and Community Development commissioned a consortium to conduct the first Baseline Data Gathering Exercise of Social Enterprise in Ireland which can be found here.

Identification of Effective State-of-the-Art Green Public Procurement Policy and Practice for the Irish Public Sector (GAPS)

Funded by the EPA Research Programme, the GAPS project is led by University of Galway, and aims to produce a GPP toolkit. Keep up to date via https://www.linkedin.com/company/gaps-green-public-procurement/.

Apprenticeships in Public Procurement

In collaboration with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, the OGP have developed an information note on Apprenticeships in Public Procurement. Public procurement allows for the inclusion of social considerations, such as apprenticeship provisions, in procurement procedures under certain conditions. By incorporating apprenticeship provisions into their contracts, contracting authorities can be crucial in promoting apprenticeships.

Gender-responsive public procurement

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) has published resources to help advance gender equality throughout the supply chain:

• A step-by-step toolkit that gives practical guidance on how to include gender considerations at each step of the public procurement cycle
• A short factsheet for practitioners

Virtual Green + Social Procurement Trade Fair

The Community Resources Network Ireland (CRNI) has developed a Virtual Green + Social Procurement Trade Fair to display the goods and services of CRNI members.

EPA Green Public Procurement webpage

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains an informative Green Public Procurement website that provides access to the EPA ‘Green Public Procurement - Guidance for the Public Sector’ and other EPA GPP activities.

European Commission’s GPP Helpdesk

The EU GPP Helpdesk addresses both environmental and social considerations in public procurement. Procurement practitioners may submit questions on all aspects of sustainable public procurement to gpp-helpdesk@iclei.org.

See our Sustainable Public Procurement page for more information on Sustainable Public Procurement in Ireland