Catalan government: boosting the circular economy through green public procurement
Organisation or Company
Type of organisation or company
Country
Spain
City
Barcelona
Key Area
Project elaborated in partnership
No
Sector
Scope
Submitted by
Directorate-General for Environmental Quality and Climate Change Ministry of Territory and Sustainability Govenrment of Catalonia (Spain)
Ongoing
Yes
Type of funding
Description
The Catalan Government considers that public procurement should be used as an instrument to support strategic policies in the transition towards the circular economy. For a number of years, a strategy of Green Public Procurement (GPP) has been in place, based on the following lines: direct support for the introduction of environmental criteria in tenders, elaboration of GPP guidelines, training and promotion of green products.
GPP measures contribute to the implementation of the circular economy by defining procurement criteria geared to increasing:
- Durability: quality standards, minimum guarantee and availability of spare parts and fitness for use;
- Resource efficiency: demand for renewable electricity, clean vehicles and energy services contracts;
- Reuse: reusable tableware and transport packaging;
- Refurbish/retrofitting: improve environmental standards of existing equipment in building facility management;
- Recycling: demand low toxic materials, recyclability of products and ensure selective waste collection;
- Buy recycled: textiles with recycled fibres and recycled paper.
Main activity field
Identified challenge (s)
Main results
- Inclusion of green public procurement in most framework agreements and centralised contracts of the Central Purchasing Body;
- Increase of the number of tenders and the total amount of tenders with GPP clauses;
- GPP measures boosted the offer of sustainable products and services, mainly ecodesigned and ecolabelled products, in some sectors of the Catalan market such as cleaning, building maintenance, food, furniture and vehicles;
- Increase knowledge about circular procurement by public procurers.