Green Public Procurement

This policy brief by the Stockholm Environment Institute examines the implementation of Green Public Procurement (GPP) across eight EU Member States, focusing on the road transport and construction sectors. It identifies significant gaps between stated climate targets and actual procurement practices, highlighting barriers such as fragmented governance, lack of standardized data, and limited capacity among procurement officers. The document provides best practice examples from various regions and offers 17 policy recommendations to harmonize GPP across the EU to support the 2030 climate target of a net 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

• Public procurement in the EU represents a significant economic lever, with government spending on works, goods, and services accounting for approximately 15% of GDP in 2020. This purchasing power can be used to signal market support for the green transition and reduce the public sector's own environmental footprint.
• The construction and road transport sectors are critical targets for GPP due to their high emissions. Road transport accounted for over 70% of the transport sector's direct GHG emissions in 2019, and building and construction were responsible for 39% of global energy and process-related CO2 emissions in 2018. Together, these sectors represent about 12% of total public sector GHG emissions each.
• Implementation of GPP in EU Member States has been slow and fails to meet the 2008 European Commission target of having half of all public tendering procedures meet core GPP criteria by 2010. There is a notable discrepancy in how 'green' procurement is defined; while the EU Commission requires all core GPP criteria to be met, some Member States count a tender as GPP if only one environmental criterion is used.
• Governance of GPP is often fragmented, with responsibilities split between finance and environment ministries, which can impede policy coordination. In decentralized systems like Germany and Spain, this creates a fragmented policy landscape with significant regional differences. Furthermore, sub-national authorities, who handle at least half of procurement spending, often struggle to keep up with national and EU legal requirements.
• Several Member States have implemented mandatory GPP for specific sectors. Italy has mandatory GPP for 18 priority groups, including road transport and construction, though enforcement is a challenge. Estonia has mandatory requirements for four product groups and is preparing to extend this to five more, including construction and road transport.
• Procurement officers face several practical barriers to GPP adoption, including a lack of time for market research, limited knowledge of greener alternatives, and fear of litigation from unsuccessful bidders. Additionally, there is a lack of standardized, reliable, and product-specific environmental data.
• Specific best practices demonstrate the potential of GPP: Berlin reduced GHG emissions by 47% by using environmental considerations in 15 product groups. Sweden requires climate declarations for all new buildings and carbon footprint calculations for road construction projects valued at €5 million or more. The Netherlands uses the CO2 Performance Ladder to give competitive advantages to companies with better GHG performance.

APA

Axelsson, K., Piirsalu, E., Nilsson, A., Kaaret, L. K., & Morales, E. T. (2023). Green Public Procurement. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/green-procurement-european-greenhouse-emissions.pdf

Chicago

Axelsson, Katarina, Evelin Piirsalu, Astrid Nilsson, Lewis Kaidi Kaaret, and Eileen Torres Morales. Green Public Procurement. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2023. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/green-procurement-european-greenhouse-emissions.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Axelsson |first1=Katarina |last2=Piirsalu |first2=Evelin |last3=Nilsson |first3=Astrid |last4=Kaaret |first4=Lewis Kaidi |last5=Morales |first5=Eileen Torres |title=Green Public Procurement |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=February 2023 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/green-procurement-european-greenhouse-emissions.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{axelsson2023green, author = {Axelsson, Katarina and Piirsalu, Evelin and Nilsson, Astrid and Kaaret, Lewis Kaidi and Morales, Eileen Torres}, title = {{Green Public Procurement}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2023}, month = feb, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/green-procurement-european-greenhouse-emissions.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }