Brussels, 27/08/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has produced a Handbook on Green Public Procurement. It explains in clear, non-technical terms how public purchasers, such as schools, hospitals and national and local administrations, can take into account the environment when buying goods, services and works (available in English, translations available in June 2005).
The EU's new Public Procurement Directives, formally adopted on 31 March 2004, make clear that public authorities can in many different ways adopt environmental considerations into their procurement procedures, focussing on the best value for money. It was under pressure from the European Parliament that this clause was added, enabling public authorities to take environmental criteria into account within the limits established by Court of Justice case law (transparent criteria, non-discrimination, etc). The Handbook presents practical examples taken from a wide range of authorities across the EU on how green purchasing can be used. There are also very simple example, like requiring a certain percentage of school meals to be organic food. Technical contracts are obviously more complicated. The Handbook explains "when setting performance-based specifications, you have to be even more careful than when setting conventional technical specifications. As the options available on the market can vary considerably, you should make sure your specifications are clear enough to allow you to make a proper and justifiable evaluation." Public authorities can require the use of recycled material, for example, but this should be connected with the nature of the contract a school can specify the type of wood to be used for its furniture, for example, but may not require the furniture manufacturer to use recycled paper in its offices, explains the Handbook.
The introduction to the Handbook explains that if all public authorities in the Union switched to green electricity, it would save 60 million tonnes of CO2, or 18% of the EU's Kyoto commitment on cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2012.
(The Handbook and further information can be found at: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/publicprocurement/key-docs_en.htm )