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