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In September 2004, the European Commission released a handbook encouraging public authorities throughout the EU to green their purchasing procedures as far as possible. The guidance follows a revision of EU procurement rules last year which clarified authorities rights to set environmental conditions when buying products and services.

Spending by public bodies accounts for up to 16% of EU GDP and greening their purchasing patterns has been singled out as a major plank of a future integrated product policy.

Environment ministers reaffirmed their backing for the drive last month.

Though aimed at public institutions, the Commission says it hopes the procurement techniques it espouses will "inspire" the wider community of corporate purchasers. It says potential suppliers and contractors should also study it to learn how best to respond to public tenders.

Several years in the drafting, the guidance shows how far public bodies can interpret EU rules to favour greener products without discriminating between suppliers. The advice is backed up by online environmental information databases for several product types. It will be formally launched at a conference in Brussels on 29 October.

The handbook presses home the key message that almost any environmental condition can be placed on supplies, providing that contractors have been alerted to the requirements sufficiently early in the purchasing cycle.

It also clarifies the position of ecolabels. Authorities can require that suppliers offer products that meet or even exceed environmental criteria set out in existing ecolabel programmes. They can also accept the label as proof of compliance. But they may not exclude products that meet the criteria without carrying an ecolabel.

When awarding contracts authorities can compare offers of products and services on the basis either of the lowest price or of the "economically most advantageous" offer. Choosing the latter allows freedom to include environmental aspects as a component of the value of a product. The interpretation follows landmark European court rulings on the procurement of vehicles and electricity.

Green Public Procurement is a step-by-step process; the Handbook addresses these steps:

• Consider which products, services or works are the most suitable on the basis both of their environmental impact and of other factors, like the information you have, what is on the market, the technologies available, costs and visibility. (Chapter 1)
• Identify your needs and express them appropriately. Choose a green title to communicate your policy to the outside world, ensuring optimum transparency for potential suppliers or service providers, and for the citizens you are serving. (Chapter 2)
• Draw up clear and precise technical specifications, using environmental factors where possible (pass/fail conditions) (Chapter 3):
  • Look for examples of environmental characteristics in databases/eco-labels;
  • Build upon the "best practices" of other contracting authorities; use networking as a way of obtaining and spreading information;
  • Take a scientifically sound "life cycle costing approach"; do not shift environmental impacts from one stage of the life cycle to another;
  • Use performance-based or functional specifications to encourage innovative green offers;
  • Consider environmental performances, such as the use of raw materials, sustainable production methods (where relevant for the end product or service), energy efficiency, renewable energies, emissions, waste, "recyclability", dangerous chemicals, etc.;
  • If you are uncertain about the actual existence, price or quality of green products or services, ask for green variants.
• Establish selection criteria on the basis of the exhaustive list of criteria mentioned in the public procurement directives. Where appropriate include environmental criteria to prove technical capacity to perform the contract. Tell potential suppliers, service providers or contractors that they can use environmental management schemes and declarations to prove compliance with the criteria. (Chapter 4)
• Establish award criteria: where the criteria of the "economically most advantageous tender" is chosen insert relevant environmental criteria either as a benchmark to compare green offers with each other (in case the technical specifications define the contract as being green), or as a way of introducing an environmental element (in case the technical specifications define the contract in a "neutral" way) and giving it a certain weighting. Consider the life cycle costing! (Chapter 5)
• Use contract performance clauses as a way of setting relevant extra environmental conditions in addition to the green contract. Where possible, insist on environmentally friendly transport methods. (Chapter 6)
• Always make sure that everything you ask of potential bidders and their offers relates to the subject matter of the contract.