Green procurement

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or section needs to be revised. Details should be given on the talk page. Please help to improve it , and then remove this flag.

Green procurement means that environmental aspects are taken into account when purchasing products or services.

In Germany, the procurement activities of the public sector alone are responsible for around 17% of the gross domestic product . With a total value of around 360 billion euros per year, the public sector is the largest buyer or demand in Germany. In addition to the direct environmental impact of individual purchases, procurement can also exert an influence on future product developments.

Framework conditions for ecological award criteria

Procurement rules on a national or international level are intended to promote competition between different providers without preferring or discriminating against individuals. The goal is transparent and verifiable conditions that ensure the best value for money with every purchase . The regulations promote free trade between states and increase competition between suppliers.

Public procurement

There are legal frameworks for public procurement that are binding in any case. These framework conditions are regulated by national and European budget and competition law and serve

  • the economic use of public funds and
  • the prevention of favoritism and corruption.

The following principles apply to public procurement based on ecological criteria:

  • Public clients are bound by procurement law regulations in procurement processes
  • Public contracts in Germany usually have to be put out to tender publicly, from a certain order size EU-wide
  • The consideration of environmental aspects in tenders is compatible with the applicable European and national law.

The fundamental principles of public procurement law arising from primary law include the principles of non-discrimination, equal treatment, transparency and competition. There are also several EU directives that provide a legal framework for public procurement. This includes the procurement coordination guideline (RL 2004/18 / EG), which was implemented in Germany with the procurement and contract regulations for services ( VOL ). Further award and contract regulations are those for construction services ( VOB ) and for freelance services ( VOF ).

According to the VOL, there are different options for taking environmental concerns into account in the various phases of the award procedure:

Environmental aspects in the specification of services
The specification of services offers the greatest scope for integrating environmental aspects in the tendering process. It contains the type and scope of the service to be awarded. The performance criteria must be linked to the subject of the contract and must be expressly named in the tender documents. Failure to meet a performance criterion leads to the offer being excluded from the award procedure.
In an environmentally friendly tender, for example, a special production process (e.g. electricity from renewable energy sources) can be stipulated in order to specify visible and invisible requirements for the product. Marking with a mandatory energy label - such as B. the EU label for energy-saving household appliances - can be included directly and without restrictions in the service description. Voluntary energy or environmental labels can be used as evidence of compliance with the technical requirements specified in the service description. However, other evidence of compliance with the criteria must also be accepted.
Environmental aspects in the award criteria
Award criteria are those characteristics that serve to determine the most economical offer and bring the client an advantage (e.g. in the environmental balance). They must be related to the subject of the contract, be listed with their weighting in the specification of services or in the notice and must not lead to discrimination against bidders.
Environmentally relevant award criteria can also be specified. The low power consumption of a comparatively expensive office device can have a positive impact on the evaluation of an offer through additional points. According to case law, even external costs such as low CO 2 emissions (through the use of green electricity ) can be taken into account. The environmentally relevant award criteria must not be set arbitrarily, but should be based on the general environmental goals of the purchasing institution.
Evaluation of the economically most advantageous offer
When evaluating the most economically advantageous offer, all costs over the entire life cycle ( life cycle costs ) of a product or service are included (including energy, maintenance and disposal costs). This also makes hidden follow-up costs visible, which can make the cheapest offer uneconomical. The life cycle costs of a product to be procured may only be included in the award assessment to the extent that it concerns costs during and after the provision of the service. External costs such as environmental damage must not be included directly in the determination of the most economically advantageous offer.

Private procurement

Private-sector companies are not bound by the regulations of public procurement law in their procurement processes. Environmental protection measures and an optimized use of energy and materials are usually associated with economic advantages and increase competitiveness. However, there is no legal obligation or restriction to take these criteria into account in private procurement.

An exception are companies or projects that are predominantly (more than 50%) subsidized by government agencies or that fall under the concept of public contracting authorities. In order to avoid distortions of competition, European and national procurement law also applies to these procurement measures.

Establishing environmental criteria for purchasing

In order to permanently anchor the consideration of environmental criteria in purchasing in an institution or a company, it is advisable to define this goal by means of fundamental resolutions and institutional standards for the respective institution. These standards then serve as the basis for the specific procurement processes.

Procurement policy
Even before the actual procurement process, it is advisable to apply the general principles of company policy to procurement policy. If the company or institution participates in an environmental management system or if environmental goals are generally weighted heavily, corresponding guidelines are usually already anchored in the procurement policy. When the contract is awarded, environmental criteria are given greater weight if they are borne by the management of the institution.
Needs analysis
At this point, the need for procurement and its scope are checked. Possible alternatives to purchasing a product, such as repairing the old device or leasing a new product, as well as measures to increase efficiency and synergy, can represent environmentally friendly aspects. A critical and accurate needs analysis is one of the most important steps in green procurement.
Procurement guidelines
In the procurement guidelines, company-wide technical, economic and, if necessary, also ecological requirements for products to be procured are laid down in principle. The properties must be precisely specified and economically measurable. The performance criterion “environmental justice” would be too unspecific. Permissible ecological performance criteria are e.g. B. Guide values ​​for the electricity or water consumption of devices as well as maintenance and disposal costs.
The procurement guidelines should also contain the basis for evaluating the most economical offer. This includes specifications for an operating cost analysis and the weightings of the various life cycle costs.
The procurement guidelines with the established performance criteria are included in the tender documents and specified if necessary. For example, specific requirements relating to the network capability of PCs or specific energy efficiency classes for household appliances can be specified.

Green procurement in Europe

European Union

In 2008 the European Commission developed a catalog for "Green Public Procurement (GPP)" which contains the criteria for organic food and animal products that have been produced in compliance with high animal welfare standards.

Germany

The objective of sustainable procurement can be found in various institutions, e.g. B. Competence Center for Sustainable Procurement (KNB) , Competence Center for Innovative Procurement (KOINNO) , National Quality Center for Nutrition in Kita and School (NQZ) . There is also the Bio-Cities network , which aims to use more food from organic farming in its public facilities.

Great Britain

In 2014 the Department for Environment & Rural Affairs laid down framework conditions for sustainable food procurement in the "Plan for Public Procurement" . In addition, the "Animal Cruelty Free Food Procurement Policy" was issued in 2009 to promote animal welfare in the procurement of animal products.

Austria

The Austrian Action Plan for Sustainable Public Procurement ”(naBe Action Plan) is an Austria- wide instrument . Furthermore, there is the program ÖkoKauf the city of Vienna , which determines, among other criteria for the procurement of food by the government in Vienna.

Sweden

In the Swedish city of Gothenburg, the "meal program" , which sets an organic quota of 50% (100% for meat) for all municipal facilities, was introduced. In 2010 Malmö set itself the goal of converting all food procurement to organic products by 2020.

Switzerland

The procurement platform "Compass Sustainability" is financed by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO . Their guidelines recommend reducing the proportion of animal products and giving preference to plant-based products as well as organically and fairly produced products.

See also

swell

  1. ↑ Credible - economical - future-proof: a modern procurement policy must be sustainable. ( Memento of the original from April 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 447 kB) Recommendations of the Council for Sustainable Development to the Federal Government, Text No. 23, August 2008  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nachhaltigkeitsrat.de
  2. ↑ Green Public Procurement accessed on August 24, 2020 in Ec.europa.eu
  3. ↑ The central portal for sustainable procurement by public clients, accessed on August 24, 2020 in Sustainable-beschlassung.info
  4. ↑ The Competence Center for Innovative Procurement accessed on August 24, 2020 in Koinno-bmwi.de
  5. ↑ National Quality Center for Nutrition in Day Care and Schools accessed on August 24, 2020 in Nqz.de
  6. ↑ Bio-Cities accessed on August 24, 2020 in Bzfe.de
  7. ↑ A Plan for Public Procurement , Dr Peter Bonfield, accessed on August 24, 2020 ( PDF; 2.65 MB )
  8. ↑ Newcastle's Social Value Commitment , GPP Case Studies, accessed on August 24, 2020 ( PDF; 142 kB )
  9. ↑ Austrian Action Plan for Sustainable Public Procurement, accessed on August 24, 2020 in Sustainigebeschendung.at
  10. ↑ ÖkoKauf Wien - Program for the ecological procurement of the City of Vienna accessed on August 24, 2020 in Wien.gv.at
  11. ↑ Sustainable Food for Thought in Malmö , GPP Case studies, accessed on August 24, 2020 ( PDF; 119 kB )
  12. ↑ Compass Sustainability, accessed on August 24, 2020 in Kompass-nachhaltigkeit.ch

literature

  • Umweltbundesamt (Ed.): Handbook environmentally friendly procurement, Vahlen-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-8006-2437-9 , 4th, completely revised edition 1999

Web links

Source: GreenLabelsPurchase, approval available.