Green public procurement in Estonia Hannes Mädo The Ministry of the Environment

What is public procurement? Public procurement is the process by which government departments or agencies purchase goods and services from the private sector

Thresholds: International thresholds: 1. When Government is buying goods or services EUR 2. when local government is buying goods or services EUR 3. All procurers when buying building services EUR Estonian thresholds: 1. All procurers, when buying goods and services EUR 2. All procurers, when buying building services EUR

What is green public procurement (GPP)? - Procedure where environmental considerations are taken into account within the procurement process.

Why use GPP? Some facts from EU GPP traning toolkit: - European public authorities spend each year over €1,800 billion on goods & services (14% -16 % of the GDP) - Directing this spending power towards the purchase of greener products and services can: - Achieve huge direct environmental benefits - Help drive the market for greener products and services - Set an example for corporate and private consumers

- If all European public authorities bought green electricity 18% of the Kyoto commitments could be met - EU Public authorities buy 2.8 million computers annually - 12% of market. If the European market could be moved to producing slightly more efficient PCs then over 8 million tonnes CO 2 could be saved - equivalent to the emissions of almost 1 million people

GPP doesn’t mean spending more money: - Life-cycle costing (LCC): Critical to consider the costs of a product/service throughout its useful life - purchase price, usage and maintenance costs, disposal costs - Efficient procurement: GPP involves meeting your needs with the most efficient use of resources - consider the real need to buy - Centralising: The City of Tübingen in Germany saved €30,000 per year by centralising cleaning product and service procurement and by using innovative products.

How it works? - Most of the EU countrys have National Actoin plans, where the targets of gpp are set up. Usually GPP is not legally binding in Member States. - European Commission has worked out GPP criterias for 19 product groups. ( pp_criteria_en.htm)

Every product criteria has two stages: 1. Core criteria – set of minimum criterions that have to be included to tender documents 2. Comprehencive criteria – extra criterions for advanced procurers

Criteria for copyng and graphic paper Core criteria: - Paper must be made from 100% recovered paper fibres. - Recovered paper fibres include both post-consumer recycled fibres and pre-consumer recycled fibres from paper mills, also known as broke. -Post-consumer recycled fibres may come from consumers, offices, printing houses, bookbinders, or similar. Verification: All products carrying any type I ecolabel, such as the EU Ecolabel can serve as means of proof if it is specified that the paper is made from 00% recovered paper fibres. Any other appropriate means of proof, such as a technical dossier of the manufacturer or a test report from a recognised body will also be accepted.

- The paper must be at least Elementary Chlorine Free (ECF). Totally Chlorine Free (TCF) will also be accepted. Verification: All products carrying the EU Ecolabel will be deemed to comply. Other national type I ecolabels fulfilling the above criterion can also be accepted. Any other appropriate means of proof, such as a technical dossier of the manufacturer or a test report from a recognised body will also be accepted.

Criteria for copyng and graphic paper Comprehencive criteria: - Paper must be made from 00% recovered paper fibres, with a minimum of 65% post-consumer recycled fibres. - Recovered paper fibres include both post-consumer recycled fibres and pre-consumer recycled fibres from paper mills, also known as broke. - Post-consumer recycled fibres may come from consumers, offices, printing houses, bookbinders, or similar. Verification: All products carrying a type I ecolabel, such as the EU Ecolabel, can serve as means of proof if it is specified that the paper is made from 100% recovered paper fibres. Any other appropriate means of proof, such as a technical dossier of the manufacturer or a test report from a recognised body will also be accepted.

- The ecological criteria of the EU Ecolabel, or other type I national ecolabels directly related to paper production (and not the management practices of the factory) must be met. Full criteria documents available at: EU Ecolabel: aper_en.htm Verification: All products carrying the EU Ecolabel will be deemed to comply. Other national type I ecolabels fulfilling the listed criteria can also be accepted Any other appropriate means of proof, such as a technical dossier of the manufacturer or a test report from a recognised body will also be accepted.

Current situation in EU: 1. Updating criterias 2. Harmonisig GPP criteria with Ecolabel requirements 3. How to prioritize product croups for new criterias? 4. New stage. SPP – sustainable public procuremet. (adding social and ethical criterions to public procurements)

Current situation in Estonia: - Political stage – The Ministry of Finance - Practical side and enforcement – The Ministry of the Environment - nearly 20% of procurements are green - EU Criterias - Monitoring - Action plan?

For discussion: - Shall GPP be legally binding? Shall it be written in law that using GPP must be mandatory?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!