Xen Descripción

Through relevant and environmentally motivated requirements in public procure- ment, government authorities and other professional buyers can contribute to the achievement of the national environ-mental objectives, such as the objective of climate change, non-toxic environment and no eutrophication.

The public sector is a considerable consumer of products with an impact on differ- ent environ-mental media. Several international studies have shown that a few product areas such as transports, foodstuff and housing contribute largely to the main environmental problems facing us today. The potential for GPP lies in prod- uct groups where the environmental impact is considerable and the public sector is a large consumer.

Our experience is also that the buying power of the public sector is able to move the market. IT- equipment for the state agencies are procured through framework agreements, which means that all state agencies are buying their equipment accord- ing to the same terms of reference from the suppliers contracted in the agreement. In the 90s the coordination of IT framework agreements was handled by the Gov- ernment purchasing coordination mentioned above and environmental require- ments were set. The framework agreement contracts with all state agencies is a valuable deal for any IT-supplier, also since many local authorities use the same framework agreements for IT products. The IT sector has had to adapt its products to the environmental and quality requirements for the public sector agreements and today only products with high environmental performance are sold to public bodies at different levels. The IT sector in Sweden has responded by developing an IT eco declaration to satisfy the information needs of public and private professional buyers.

Other product areas where the potential of GPP is remarkable are light bulbs and energy from renewable resources. For instance light bulbs account for 1/3 of the total energy use in public buildings in Sweden. A change to low energy light bulbs could contribute with a considerable reduction in both energy use as well as energy cost. Also, if the public sector purchased ecologically produced food stuff their market share could increase considerably. In Sweden the government has issued an ordinance for all governmental agencies on procurement and leasing of environ- mentally preferable cars.110 _{85 % of all cars purchased or rented should now fulfil} the criteria of an environmental vehicle. The definition includes for example cars

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using renewable fuel. There are a lot of examples of local authorities purchasing environmental vehicles for their different needs.

GPP is seldom an inherent part of a procurement policy. The ambition to buy green must in most cases come top down. This can either be set forth by requirements or objectives from higher instances or through an Environmental Management Scheme. In Sweden both of these have contributed to public authorities taking environmental consideration in purchasing. In the best case scenario environ- mental aspects form an integral part of any technical or quality requirements set in a procurement process.

Some 60 % of public purchasers in Sweden always or often set environmental requirements in the calls for tender. In EU studies Sweden is often mentioned as one of the forerunners and top 7 performing countries in Europe.111 _{Despite these} comparisons, we are still facing several challenges in developing the potential of GPP. Capacity building and training of purchasers, further developing the EKU instrument and assessing the environmental benefits of GPP still have to continue and the system of public procurement needs to be improved.

Sustainable procurement means purchasing goods and services with high environ- mental performance that consider the social and economic impacts of procurement. There is a growing interest in social requirements in GPP both in Sweden and in the EU. The issue is still in the early stages and many questions need to be solved. An EU guidance is however coming soon. According to the EU directives it is possible to set both social and environmental requirements in procurement. One important issue is that the requirements must be able to be followed up. Work is ongoing in different fora amongst all in the organisation ICLEI.112 _{The organisa-} tion runs a sustainable procurement campaign (Procura+) aiming at supporting public authorities across Europe in implementing sustainable procurement.113 6.4.1 Technology Procurement

Technology procurement could be described as a sort of Green Public Procurement but with the aim of pushing the development of new technology. The aim of tech- nology procurement is thus to promote new products or processes. Technology procurement means that a number of purchasers (they can be both private and/or public) together elaborate a technical specification for a coming product. At the same time they make a commitment to buy the product that complies with the specifications. The supplier who can comply with the specifications will win the competition. Through gathering several buyers the volume of the products becomes bigger and the manufacturers´ risk in developing new products becomes less if he or she is guaranteed a market.

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Virage et. al (2006) Green Public Procurement in Europe 2006

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An international association of local governments dedicated to a sustainable urban environment.

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This method can be used in order to promote more environmentally friendly prod- ucts. In Sweden there is both positive and negative experience of the method. At EU level a successful project has been carried out aiming at developing more en- ergy efficient white goods.114