Monitoring Progress in Green Public Procurement

The report examines how governments can monitor green public procurement (GPP) to track progress toward climate goals. It categorizes monitoring into institutionalization, outputs, and outcomes, while detailing specific tools for measuring CO2 impacts. Through case studies of South Korea, Japan, Slovenia, Denmark, Malaysia, and the Netherlands, it identifies key success factors such as strong legal mandates and e-procurement integration. It also highlights significant barriers, including data insufficiency, decentralized procurement structures, and a lack of specialized technical skills. The document concludes with recommendations for governments to define clear targets, mandate monitoring through policy, and strengthen data management systems.

• GPP monitoring is categorized into three main elements: institutionalization (process), outputs (procurement activities), and outcomes (impacts). While institutionalization and outputs track implementation, outcomes measure real environmental benefits such as GHG emission reductions.
• Measuring the actual outcomes of GPP is rare in practice; most countries with monitoring systems focus on outputs, such as the number of tenders with green criteria, rather than quantified environmental impacts.
• Methods for monitoring CO2 impacts are divided into product-level information (e.g., Environmental Product Declarations), organization-level methods (e.g., CO2 Performance Ladder), and assessment tools and models (e.g., Life-cycle assessment).
• The CO2 Performance Ladder (CO2PL) is a Dutch-developed tool that rewards suppliers with an award advantage in tenders based on their carbon management certification level, which ranges from 1 to 5.
• Major challenges in GPP monitoring include the absence of clear objectives, the decentralized nature of government procurement, a lack of transparent and high-quality data, and a shortage of specialized knowledge in complex tools like Life-cycle assessment (LCA).
• South Korea is considered a global benchmark for GPP monitoring due to its mandatory annual reporting for government agencies and the integration of monitoring into the Korean Online E-Procurement System (KONEPS).
• Japan estimates GPP environmental benefits for 19 product categories by comparing current green purchases against a 2000 market share baseline of eco-friendly products.
• Slovenia's Care4Climate project analysis (2018-2020) found that GPP compliance resulted in a reduction of 101,506 tonnes of CO2, representing 0.5% of the country's total CO2 footprint.
• Denmark utilizes an expense-based method matching invoice data with the EXIOBASE multi-regional input-output model to calculate the carbon footprint of public procurement, which was 16 million tonnes of CO2e in 2021.
• Malaysia tracks GPP through the Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Corporation (MGTC), focusing on 40 specified product and service groups, with reported CO2e reductions of 1,031.3 tonnes in 2018.

APA

Erizaputri, S., Bechauf, R., & Casier, L. (2024). Monitoring Progress in Green Public Procurement. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2024-03/monitoring-green-public-procurement.pdf

Chicago

Erizaputri, Sharmila, Ronja Bechauf, and Liesbeth Casier. Monitoring Progress in Green Public Procurement. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2024. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2024-03/monitoring-green-public-procurement.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Erizaputri |first1=Sharmila |last2=Bechauf |first2=Ronja |last3=Casier |first3=Liesbeth |title=Monitoring Progress in Green Public Procurement |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=March 2024 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2024-03/monitoring-green-public-procurement.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{erizaputri2024monitoring, author = {Erizaputri, Sharmila and Bechauf, Ronja and Casier, Liesbeth}, title = {{Monitoring Progress in Green Public Procurement}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2024}, month = mar, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2024-03/monitoring-green-public-procurement.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }