IHOBE

The green public procurement handbook edited by the EU Directorate-General for Environment provides numerous real examples of green purchasing by authorities throughout the EU and stresses the importance of public sector spending in Europe as an important tool to achieve the environmental policy targets related to climate change, the use of resources and sustainable production and consumption.

The latest version of the handbook focuses on the regulatory change arising from the recent procurement directives published in 2014, and on the progress made in sustainable practices implemented by different public administrations, including Ihobe, the Basque Government”s environmental management publicly-owned company.  

For several years now, the publicly-owned company coming under the Basque Government”s Ministry of the Environment and Territorial Policy has held regular meetings with suppliers in a wide range of sectors.  It has worked with them to define the environmental criteria of the products and services that the Basque Government acquires as a result of public tendering.

This collating of information by Ihobe with the suppliers has facilitated a greening of the market as the suppliers have been able to prepare appropriately to meet the demand for products and services with less environmental impact. The work carried out with the different sectors is described in the “Green Public Procurement Handbook”, published by Ihobe, and which sets out the environmental criteria that can be required in public contracts for nearly twenty areas, including events, furniture, cleaning products, printing, etc…

The European Green Procurement Handbook also includes as a good practice the criteria included by Gipuzkoa Provincial Council when contracting maintenance services for two buildings, where the presence of an engineer and/or architect with energy efficiency and waste management expertise is required to coordinate the work.