Green Procurement
What is transpiring around the globe?
Already in 2008 the European Union set a target for itself according to which 50% of the tenders in the year 2010, in 10 selected categories (such as construction, transportation, cleaning agents, services) will include a series of green threshold criteria. In a survey conducted by the Union in the year 2012, it was found that 26% of tenders included all of the green threshold criteria – less than the 50% target, however, 55% of the tenders included at least one criterion.
In the U.S.A., President Obama issued a presidential order under which all agencies must reach until the year 2020, the following goals:
- 30% reduction in fuel consumption
- 26% in water saving
- 50% reduction of waste until 2015 (by increasing the recycling)
- 95% of all tenders (except security tenders) will include green requirements
- Utilization of public procurement abilities for the promotion of new efficient products and services
- until 2030, all buildings will produce their energy alone
In the year 2011 the instruction was refreshed through the parallel of “Finance and Market Regulations Provision” which determined that “the director general of every Federal Agency must ascertain that 95% of the tenders are for products and services which are: energy efficient, water saving, produced from expandable materials, and meet the criteria of the Environmental Protection Authority.
Additionally, the instruction states that an attempt must be made to purchase recycled and non-poisonous materials, with the justification given to the instruction is “reduction of American dependency on imported fuels, improved security, creation of workplaces in the green industries, and the reduction of environmental influence by the government”.
In 2013 the National Program by the American Procurement Administration was published requiring that all contracts of the Procurement Administration, starting with that year, will include:
- Activation of green procurement instructions by the Environmental Protection Authority
- Confirmation that the product is energy efficient
- Green label for electronic products
- If relevant – made of consumable material
- If relevant – bear a water saving label (the parallel to the Israeli Blue Label granted by the Water Authority, the Ministry of the Economy and the Standards Institute for water efficient products).
- Without materials that harm the Ozone
- Vehicles will be propelled by alternative fuel.
The OECD has also issued instruction for the member countries on the subject of green procurement, and a requirement exists by the Organization’s Council from companies, to structure policy frames supporting green procurement, including:
- Identification of green products
- Guidance and technical support for all government ministries to ease the implementation of the program
- Development of indices for the monitoring and evaluation of green procurement.
Green procurement takes place not only in the
public sector but also in the business sector, with the large business enterprises in the world engaging in the development of green supply chains, in order to ascertain that their products, or the product they are selling, are not harmful to the environment.