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5.6.2 GPP STANDARDS, CRITERIA<br />
AND COSTING<br />
REWARDING BENEFITS THROUGH PAYMENTS AND MARKETS<br />
Standards and criteria are the backbone of GPP. Producers<br />
and suppliers need to know on what basis<br />
their products are assessed and how they can improve<br />
their chances of winning a contract. Making environmental<br />
criteria measurable and transparent is a<br />
considerable challenge given the range of products<br />
and services purchased by governments. Cooperation<br />
with relevant sectors and producers is needed to<br />
strike a balance between environmental ambition and<br />
product availability. Training of purchasers is important<br />
to ensure that policy goals are translated into action.<br />
Through GPP, governments can choose to buy certified<br />
or labelled products that are guaranteed to meet<br />
purchasing criteria for a given category of products<br />
(see Box 5.31 and Section 5.5 above). Such policies<br />
Box 5.29: The ‘Green-7’ in the European Union<br />
Seven EU Member States (Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and UK) consistently<br />
have more tenders with green criteria than other Member States, supported by:<br />
• strong political drivers and/or national guidelines;<br />
• national GPP programmes in place for a number of years;<br />
• strong information sources (dedicated GPP websites containing relevant criteria/specifications);<br />
• innovative procurement techniques (most use dedicated tools e.g. life-cycle costs as an award<br />
criterion, or functional specifications/requests for environmental variants);<br />
• application of environmental management systems by purchasing organisations.<br />
Source: Bouwer et al. 2006<br />
Box 5.30: Strengthening regulations for GPP implementation in China<br />
China’s Government Purchase Law took effect on 1 January 2003. Five years later, official statistics show<br />
that about 5.1 billion Yuan (630 million US$) has been saved in government procurement costs.<br />
The Law as enacted established a ‘preferential’ list which allowed government bodies to shop around for<br />
other products if they could justify them on cost and energy-efficiency grounds. Subsequently, the State<br />
Council adopted a compulsory list (December 2007) of nine types of products, including air conditioners,<br />
fluorescent lamps, televisions, electric water heaters, computers, printers, computer monitors and water<br />
nozzles.<br />
A new State Council Order, published on the central government's website, indicates that China will impose<br />
tougher compulsory procurement rules for energy-saving products and give priority to eco-friendly products<br />
in future public purchases.<br />
Source: China Daily, 14 April 2009<br />
may not only have direct environmental benefits but<br />
also increase the recognisability and diffusion of market-based<br />
labelling schemes.<br />
Greening certain purchases may yield higher environmental<br />
benefits than others. Recent studies have<br />
focused mainly on CO 2 effects of GPP policies and not<br />
yet on direct biodiversity impacts. One found that focusing<br />
on construction and electricity products and services<br />
is the ‘low-hanging fruit’ for governments willing to<br />
target CO 2 emissions (PWC 2009). GPP’s specific benefits<br />
for biodiversity could be assessed by analysing<br />
procurement criteria with a positive effect on biodiversity<br />
and linking this to actual contracts and amounts bought<br />
by national/local governments. However, it is already<br />
clear that creating demand for products with low environmental<br />
impacts is directly or indirectly beneficial for<br />
soil and water quality, ecosystem integrity and long-term<br />
sustainability of natural capital.<br />
<strong>TEEB</strong> FOR NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL POLICY MAKERS - CHAPTER 5: PAGE 57