Green Procurement

Green procurement refers to the purchase of goods and services that have a smaller impact on the environment and people's health, compared with competing goods and services for the same purpose and quality of service. The government can use green procurement to improve ministries' environmental performance, save money, and encourage green growth in Israel.

Promoting green procurement yields both economic and environmental advantages.

At the environmental level, prioritizing green products will reduce the environmental loads, such as greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, waste, water pollution, and hazardous materials that affect health. At the economic level, prioritizing green products will yield advantages, mainly through financial savings over a product's lifespan and by reducing the externalities from environment and health harm. The state has a positive role in promoting green procurement as it is the largest buyer and can influence the driving of procurement processes throughout the economy by prioritizing products with better environmental performance. Green procurement has the potential for by using the market to achieve environmental and health advantages, instead of legislation.

Green procurement is a tool the government uses to reduce direct environmental impact, as well as to utilize its power as a large buyer to encourage the introduction of products with low environmental impact into the economy. A paper published by the Finnish Institute of the Environment in 2020 shows that public procurement and state investment account for 34% of greenhouse gas emissions, for which procurement is responsible for 12%.

https://www.syke.fi/en-US/Current/Carbon_footprint_of_Finnish_household_co(55211)

As a result of the government's decisions on green procurement, since 2010, the Government Procurement Administration has been running a program to integrate green criteria into central tenders and striving to give an advantage to suppliers who present improved environmental performance solutions. This page will outline Government Procurement Administration activities on green procurement. For more information, please contact the Director of Green Procurement at the Procurement Administration, Mr. Alon Kinset at alonk@mof.gov.il.