Advancing Green Public Procurement in South Africa

The report identifies that South Africa's public procurement, representing approximately 15% of its GDP, offers a significant opportunity to address environmental challenges. While national legislation specifically for green public procurement (GPP) is absent, existing regulations permit the integration of environmental considerations. Successes in the Western Cape and City of Cape Town demonstrate the feasibility of GPP in reducing water, energy, and waste. However, mainstreaming GPP is hindered by legislative gaps, limited practitioner capacity, financial constraints, and market readiness issues for smaller companies. The report recommends five strategic areas for improvement: embedding GPP into legislation, enhancing procurer capacity, integrating GPP into budget planning, establishing monitoring systems, and supporting small companies to improve market readiness.

• South Africa's public procurement represents a significant lever for environmental sustainability, accounting for roughly 15% of the national GDP, which could be used to combat carbon emissions, pollution, and water scarcity.
• Although South Africa lacks specific national legislation for green public procurement (GPP), current regulations allow for the inclusion of environmental factors in procurement. Local examples, such as the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape government, have successfully used green criteria to reduce waste, energy consumption, and water use.
• The mainstreaming of GPP in South Africa is obstructed by several factors: a focus on social and economic objectives over environmental ones, legislative gaps, lack of knowledge among practitioners, financial constraints, poor monitoring systems, and the inability of small companies to meet environmental requirements.

APA

Bechauf,, S. E. (2025). Advancing Green Public Procurement in South Africa. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/green-public-procurement-south-africa

Chicago

Bechauf,, Sharmila Erizaputri,Ronja. Advancing Green Public Procurement in South Africa. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2025. https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/green-public-procurement-south-africa.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bechauf, |first1=Sharmila Erizaputri,Ronja |title=Advancing Green Public Procurement in South Africa |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=24 February 2025 |url=https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/green-public-procurement-south-africa |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bechauf2025advancing, author = {Bechauf,, Sharmila Erizaputri,Ronja}, title = {{Advancing Green Public Procurement in South Africa}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2025}, month = feb, url = {https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/green-public-procurement-south-africa}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }