Sustainability requirements should be incorporated into the specification. They must be relevant and proportionate to the procurement, and not to the general capacities or qualities of the operator. It is also important to establish that the relevant market can meet requirements before incorporating them into the specification.
Buyers can maximise opportunities to enhance biodiversity outcomes by considering biodiversity and its relevance to the procurement in question early so that relevant and proportionate requirements can be incorporated into the specification, including any ‘end of life’ requirements.
For example, in a catering or food procurement, could value for money organic or sustainably produced food be specified. Could fresh and seasonal produce be specified (which could help to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with processing, transport and refrigeration). Or, in a ground maintenance or gardening services procurement, could a requirement be placed on the contractor to include insect-friendly planting, wildflower areas, or a wildlife pond.
The EU Green Public Procurement Criteria (EU GPP criteria) are developed to facilitate the inclusion of green requirements in public tender documents. These can be incorporated into specifications for goods, services or works to reduce the environmental impact of procurements. These include criteria for food catering services, furniture, indoor cleaning services, paints, varnishes and road markings, and textile products and services.
Similar in purpose to the EU GPP criteria, Government Buying Standards (GBS) are a set of product specifications for public buyers when buying goods and services. These include criteria for food and catering (updated August 2021), horticulture and park services, furniture and construction projects and buildings. It should be noted that at the time of publication the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) are in the process of updating the GBS.
Labels can be used as evidence of meeting specific environmental, social or other criteria, for example ISO14001 or EMAS. Equivalent evidence of meeting these criteria must also be accepted.
Labels are a specific term and how they should be used is set out in Regulation 44 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.
The use of labels needs to be approached with care. A label must be:
While a public body can ask for what they are buying to have an independently verifiable label which certifies that it meets specific environmental, social, or other characteristics, a particular label should only be requested where all of its certification characteristics correspond to a procurement. The Annex includes model wording that may be used for this purpose.
Construction standards such as BREEAM Infrastructure (formerly CEEQUAL), Considerate constructors and the Home quality mark will also identify, measure and enable reporting of impacts on biodiversity as part of environmental assessments for specific projects. The Global Biodiversity Standard recognises and promotes the protection, restoration, and enhancement of biodiversity.
British Standard BS8545:2014, for example, focuses on the growing of trees and states that 'biosecurity is an important consideration. To minimise the risk of pests and or diseases being imported directly into the UK, all young trees produced abroad but purchased for transplanting should spend at least one full growing season on a UK nursery and be subjected to a full pest and disease control programme.'
See the Annex for examples.
