Green Public Procurement is a process to purchase or contract goods and services by governments, authorities and public entities, where both environmental and technical and economic aspects are assessed. In Europe, the public sector generates annual expenditure of nearly EUR 2 billion, which is equivalent to around 19% of the GDP of the European Union. In this context, the integration of innovative and green procurement criteria by all European public administrations will help to consolidate a more competitive and environmentally responsible economy. The European Commission considers green procurement as a strategic instrument to achieve its environmental goals.
BenefitsDescargar Including the green variable in public procurement benefits the public sector, the private sector and society overall. Benefits for the public sector Makes the economic resources more transparent and efficientAllows assumed environmental goals to be achieved and environmental impacts to be reduced Fosters economic savings by considering life cycle costs Improves the public image and reflects the exemplary nature towards private consumers Benefits for the private sector Offers incentives to industry to innovate and be more competitive;Drives innovation in products and services Strengthens the local economy Helps to establish environmental standards for products and services Benefits for society Reduces the price of environmental technologies and products.Improves the quality of life of the general public by cutting environmental impacts. Establishes a link between entrepreneurship and employment Increases environmental awareness
Trend Report The Ihobe Green Procurement Unit produces trend reports which cover the main developments and the most important measures in each year regarding green public procurement in the Basque Country, in Europe and in other benchmark regions. Those reports seek to disseminate, communicate and showcase how the inclusion of environmental clauses in public procurement has real benefits and is standard practice in the public sector internationally.
Signing up to the programme The Programme is of an open participatory nature and encourages the voluntary signing up to the programme of all Basque public authorities that wish to be committed to green public procurement. There are the following requirements to sign up to and take part in the Programme: Being an entity belonging to the Basque public sector.The adherence agreement must be signed by the entity A person in charge of heading and coordinating green public procurement in the entity has to be appointed.
Green Procurement and Contracting Programme of the Basque Country Download In December 2021, the Basque Government presented the Basque Country Green Procurement and Contracting Program 2030, jointly prepared by the Department of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment, and the Department of Economy and Finance, with the participation of public and private entities, which sets the goal that 75% of the contracts and purchases with the greatest environmental impact made by the Basque public administrations should be made with sustainable criteria by the end of the decade.The most notorious novelty is the role and prominence given to the Basque business sector, promoting, among other aspects, the offer of eco-designed products and services. At the same time, the aim is to promote private green purchasing in coordination with the market and to extend the benefits of public-private action so that they not only have an impact on environmental protection, but also have an impact on business competitiveness and the welfare of people in the Basque Country.The Euskadi 2030 Green Procurement and Contracting Program has been drawn up by the Basque Government through the Department of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment, and the Department of Economy and Finance. The public company Ihobe will continue to be in charge of the Technical Secretariat and will offer, among others, advisory and support services in the tenders of the adhering entities, training both for supplier companies and for the people in charge of the purchasing departments, and training for the people in charge of the purchasing departments.
Environmental criteria of products and servicesThis section considers the categories of products and services that are priority for the European Commission, along with the green public procurement criteria applicable in each of them. Each category contains three stringency levels that must be selected according to the specific circumstances of each case. The defined criteria in each of the product and service categories were previously agreed by Ihobe, the technical secretariat of the "Green Procurement and Contracting Program of Basque Country 2030" and the suppliers of each sector.Before including any environment requirement from this list in the public tendering specifications, we recommend you take the following into account: Strict legal compliance is not sufficient for a specific purchase to acquire the green public procurement dimension.The environmental clauses will always be related to the purpose of the contract. Special attention will need to be paid to any mandatory environmental clauses. A prior assessment of these environmental clauses is also required to check if they are really effective on the market coming under the procurement process. Quantifiable and objective criteria need to be incorporated in that process.
Requesting advice Ihobe offers an advisory service to the public sector of the Basque Autonomous Community on how to include environmental clauses in the tendering processes and how to subsequently proceed to assess the submitted bids. The advisory service is on an individual and customised basis and meets the demands and needs of the authority in question. Please send an email to compra.verde@ihobe.eus to request this service. The advisory service offers: Proposal on how to include environmental clauses in the specifications or in the direct procurement process.Review of the greening specifications from the legal and technical perspective. Dealing with queries in the assessment process Dealing with queries or questions that arise in the tendering process (product labelling, including life cycle costs, etc.).
Green procurement Save 27/03/2023 Green procurement The Basque Government requires environmental clauses to be included in tendering processes of its Ministries and public entities The Basque Government is firmly committed to green management that is mainstreamed in its policies, along with sustainability as its flagship. A new measure has thus been unveiled in Vitoria-Gasteiz today and will bolster the environmental aspect in procurement by the public entities of the Basque Country: a binding instruction that establishes the minimum environmental clauses that all the Ministries of the Basque Government and its public sector must include in their calls for tender.