"Sustainable public procurement are under 20%" (with INTERVIEW)

Life + funded and coordinated, in Portugal, by LNEG (Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia), the project Building SPP intends to promote the sustainable public procurement in Europe. Portugal is one of the countries with the lowest percentages of sustainable public procurement â€" below 20% â€" and the Green Savers was realizing why the researcher of LNEG and coordinator of the project in Portugal, Paula Trinity.



What is the project Building SPP and what are the main conclusions so far?

The project Building-SPP intends to develop and implement activities that result in the promotion and integration of sustainable purchasing practices in Portugal and Greece, through assistance to public authorities in defining a shopping strategy that contributes to its environmental and social policies: the promotion and cooperation between public authorities; and promoting greater involvement between public authorities and suppliers.

The project has developed and tested methodologies and tools to define strategies for purchases that contribute to the objectives and commitments arising from environmental and social policies of organizations in pilot projects. On the other hand, promoted awareness, collaboration and training of buyers and suppliers on purchases sustainable.

The project is funded by the LIFE + Programme and is a partnership involving experts from organizations in Portugal and in Greece.

What are the main results of this phase of the initiative?

The Building project was eminently practical dimension SPP, because the main objective was to demonstrate that public authorities can make sustainable shopping in Portugal, do it in a systematic way and that the knowledge for that are available.

Meanwhile created a sustainable shopping network (Network Search + Portugal), with about 30 participating organizations, in Portugal, where buyers can play experiences and acquire knowledge. This exchange of knowledge resulted in a catalogue of good practices, a compilation of cases sustainable shopping with Portuguese public authorities.

An approach was made to suppliers, where they explored the extent to which sustainability criteria can be met by Portuguese companies and ensure their competitiveness. Working groups were held between buyers and suppliers for food and catering services, construction, cleaning products and services, copy and printing paper, printing and computer equipment. It was concluded that there is a wide availability of suppliers but that, at the level of small suppliers, there is still a lack of knowledge of the environmental aspects associated with their products and services.

It was further developed an instrument for the implementation of a sustainable procurement strategy in an organization, which was tested in Loures, Torres Vedras and Lipor. Under this pilot projects hiring processes were developed with sustainability criteria (Torres Vedras-pest control products, uniforms, school feeding; Loures-surveillance service, school transportation, pest control service; LIPOR-cleaning service).

With these practical results, we wanted to develop recommendations for the Portuguese and Greek strategy of sustainable shopping, once the grocery sustainable approach in organizations can and should be supported by public policies.

Government purchases represent 16% of EU GDP. How many of these purchases are sustainable?

A study carried out by the EU in 2012 on the implementation level of ecological shopping in Europe of 27 shows that Portugal, Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic, Finland, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Latvia and Estonia have a level of implementation under 20%. This in terms of the number of contracts with environmental criteria (green procurement).

In terms of the value of contracts entered into in 2009-2010, with 10 groups of environmental criteria for products and services, Portugal presents a level of implementation under 20%.

How can these public administrations to revolutionise the sector linked to the green economy and sustainability? In other words, what percentage of the buying public would have to be "ecological" so that the green economy sector generated a number of interesting recipes and create thousands of jobs?

There is still much to be done, both in terms of organizations that claim to be pioneers in this process of change, both in terms of the generalization of sustainable shopping practices in organizations. The project Building SPP gave, so to speak, a kickoff and showed that it is possible to do. Now it is necessary to disseminate these results with the organizations, take them to consider sustainable purchases as a priority. Because in many cases a higher requirement on the part of the public administration can and must correspond to a better preparation and qualification of suppliers and therefore a greater competitiveness of the business fabric. It is in this perspective that sustainable purchases should be considered.

The second question I would have to be answered after a study on this subject.

Why will debate the Swedish case, specifically, in Congress?

The Sweden is one of the most advanced countries in terms of sustainable purchasing, with a level of implementation of more than 80%, both in number of contracts either in the value of contracts. Can therefore be an example to Portugal. The idea of the Conference was to present the example of a very advanced Country (Sweden) and another very close (Spain), with the aim to demonstrate to participants that Portugal also has good examples that can be disseminated.

The theme of sustainable public procurement is an issue on the table for some time. What has stuck to its implementation on the ground?

An approach of sustainable shopping in an organization requires changes in own organization and the manner of conducting and planning public procurement. This is the main obstacle, but the role of LNEG has been to demonstrate that it is possible to make, with clear advantages in terms of planning, increasing the internal involvement in organizations, increasing the transparency of procurement processes, improving the image of the organizations policy and contributing to the strategic objectives of the environmental and social organizations. In terms of costs there may also be advantages, if we consider not only the cost of the product or service, but we include the costs of operation, maintenance and end of life.

Sustainable Procurement Conference: A challenge for the public administration will be held on September 16 at the Museu do Oriente in Lisbon. You can sign up at this link. 

Foto: zack Mccarthy / Creative Commons

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