Sustainable procurement

Green procurement means that when buying products or services environmental aspects are taken into account.

In Germany, the procurement activities of the public sector alone are responsible annually for approximately 17% of gross domestic product. With a total value of about 360 billion euros a year, the public sector the largest buyers or buyers in Germany. In addition to the direct environmental impacts of individual purchases procurement can in principle exert influence on future product developments.

Framework for environmental award criteria

Procurement rules at national or international level to promote competition between different providers without preference or discrimination of individuals. The goal is transparent and verifiable conditions that ensure the best value for money with every purchase. The regulations promote free trade between the states and increase competition between suppliers.

Public procurement

For public procurement, there are legal conditions that are binding in every case. These conditions are governed by national and European household and competition law and serve

• The economic use of public funds and
• The prevention of favoritism and corruption.

For public procurement according to ecological criteria, the following principles apply:

• Contracting authorities are bound by procurement processes to procurement law regulations
• Public contracts must be advertised publicly usually in Germany, from a certain job level across the EU
• The consideration of environmental issues in procurement is compatible with the current European and national legislation.

One of the fundamental principles of procurement law, arising from primary law, including the principles of non -discrimination, equal treatment, transparency and competition. In addition, there are several EU directives that give the public procurement of a legal framework. This includes the award Coordination Directive (Directive 2004/18/EC), which was implemented in Germany with the award of contract procedures for services ( VOL). More construction contract orders are the (VOB ) and freelance services (VOF ).

According to the VOL are different ways to integrate environmental considerations into the different stages of the procurement procedure:

Private procurement

Private companies are not tied into their procurement processes to the provisions of the procurement law. Environmental protection measures and an optimized energy and material use are connected and increase the competitiveness usually with economic benefits. However, a legal obligation or restriction to these criteria in private procurement does not exist.

An exception are companies or projects that are mainly subsidized ( more than 50 %) by government agencies or that fall within the definition of public authority. In order to avoid distortions of competition, also there is the European and national public procurement law in these procurement actions.

Incorporate environmental criteria for purchasing

To anchor the integration of environmental criteria in procurement in an institution or a company permanently, it is advisable to define this goal by fundamental decisions and institutional standards for the particular device. In these standards serve as a basis for the specific procurement processes.