What is Sustainable Public Procurement?

What?
Sustainable Public Procurement is defined as taking into account environmental and social aspects in all phases of any procurement or tendering process financed by public money. With regard to environmental aspects, it concerns the impact on the environment, for example from using energy, reducing waste during the production process or using recyclable materials. With regard to social aspects, it concerns issues like child labour, human rights and fair trade.

Why?
The national government of the Netherlands, together with regional and local authorities, wants to stimulate the market for sustainable products by giving a good example: by purchasing sustainable goods and services. Every year, Dutch public authorities (national government, provincial authorities, municipal authorities and water boards) spend more than 50 billion euros on goods, (building) projects and services. When all public authorities procure sustainably, it will be a substantial boost for the market for sustainable products. Sustainable public procurement is one of the priorities of the Dutch Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM).

Objectives
The public authorities have set themselves clear goals. The national government wants all of its purchases to be 100% sustainable by 2010. Municipal authorities are aiming for 75%, and the provincial authorities and waterboards for 50% in 2010. All parties committed themselves to 100%% sustainable purchases in 2015. The 100% sustainable public procurement objective means that the organisation uses the core sustainability criteria  in all its tendering and procurement processes and also guarantees that these will be included in the resulting contract. 

How?
Organisations can purchase products and services in a sustainable way by including sustainability criteria in each public procurement or tendering process. The Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, together with other public authorities, has developed sustainability criteria for various product groups purchased by public authorities: these range from office furniture and electricity to catering and office buildings. Criteria are developed in such a way that the total costs do not increase substantially (based on lifecycle costs) and that there is sufficient market supply meeting the core criteria. The criteria are assessed by legal experts in order to guarantee that the criteria fulfil the European tendering procedures. You can find a list of product groups by clicking on this link.
 
The core criteria consist of both minimum specifications (product), selection criteria (supplier) and standard contract clauses. Together, the core criteria set the minimum level of sustainability required for a purchase. Use of the core criteria per product group is required in order for a purchase to be earmarked ‘sustainable’ by the monitor.
For several product groups, award criteria have also been developed. The award criteria consist of additional selection criteria (supplier) and award criteria (product) that encourage frontrunner suppliers and/or progressive public purchasers. For a number of product groups, no environmental criteria have been developed, but information is given about environmental aspects relevant to the purchase.

Monitoring
The Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment monitors the progress of sustainable public procurement by measuring the results every two years. The Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment reports the results to Parliament. At the same time, government organisations can track their own performance.