Green Public Procurement

09.04.2016, Source : procurement-forum.eu, ec.europa.eu

By Robert KAUKEWITSCH,

The new edition of the European Commission’s Buying Green! Handbook has been published.

The third edition of the Handbook has been fully revised to detail the possibilities of how contracting bodies can put their green public procurement (GPP) policies into practice under the 2014 Procurement Directives.

Buying Green! is the European Commission’s leading publication for assisting public sector entities to purchase goods and services that have a lower impact on the environment.

Given the importance of public sector spending in Europe, GPP is an important tool to help achieve environmental policy goals relating to climate change, resource use and sustainable consumption and production.

On April 2016 the European Commission published a fully revised version of

Buying Green! – A Handbook on green public procurement.

The Handbook is the European Commission’s main guidance document to help public authorities buy goods and services with a lower environmental impact. It is also a useful reference for policy makers and companies responding to green tenders.

The third edition of the Handbook includes:

• Guidance on how environmental considerations can be included at each stage of the procurement process in the current EU legal framework (adopted in 2014)
• Practical examples drawn from contracting authorities across EU Member States
• Sector specific GPP approaches for buildings, food and catering services, road transport vehicles and energy-using products.

The second edition of the Buying Green! Handbook (from 2011) is available here:

• Buying Green! Handbook (2011)

The first edition from 2004 (in all official languages of the EU) is available in the archive.