- EU GPP criteria
In order to implement green public procurement, EU suggests that the following three elements have the biggest potential to promote circular procurement:
1) Focus on provision of services instead of buying products
2) Focus on a product’s design, use phase and end of life.
3) Focus on market dialogue.
In order to promote Green Public Procurement common criteria used by Member States, the establishment of common criteria reduces considerably the administrative burden for economic operators and for public administrations implementing GPP. Common GPP criteria are of a particular benefit to companies operating in more than one Member State as well as SMEs.
The EU GPP criteria are developed to facilitate the inclusion of green requirements in public tender documents. The criteria are regularly updated, in order to take into consideration recent scientific data, new technologies, market development and changes in legislation. Most of the criteria are available in all EU official languages.
A GPP Training Toolkit is available on EU website http://ec.europa.eu/environment/gpp/toolkit_en.htm .
The GPP criteria are based on data from an evidence base, on existing ecolabel criteria and on information collected from stakeholders of industry, civil society and Member States. They were prepared by a group of experts from Member States dealing with GPP. The GPP approach is to propose two types of criteria for each sector covered. The core criteria are those suitable for use by any contracting authority across the Member States and address the key environmental impacts. They are designed to be used with minimum additional verification effort or cost increases. The comprehensive criteria are for those who wish to purchase the best environmental products available on the market. These may require additional verification effort or a slight increase in cost compared to other products with the same functionality. Core criteria are the basis of comprehensive criteria and a public tender is considered as green when it fulfills at least the core criteria.
The green criteria for goods and services are presented on EU website https://ec.europa.eu/environment/gpp/eu_gpp_criteria_en.htm.
