Buyers can maximise sustainability outcomes by considering hazardous materials and emissions and their 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. It is also important to establish that the relevant market can meet requirements before incorporating them into the specification.
When developing the specification, a variety of expertise may be available to develop clear and precise requirements including subject matter experts, who could assist by drawing out specific criteria regarding hazardous materials and emissions if this is appropriate to the contract.
It is important to be as specific as possible when setting out what you expect to achieve, or the requirements you intend to impose on the contract to limit the uncertainty for suppliers by tailoring the model Invitation to Tender wording and/or giving an individual technical sustainability criterion a specific weighting. Relevant hazardous materials and emissions requirements in the specification should be incorporated into the final contract terms.
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 Furniture, Indoor cleaning services, Office building design, Construction and management, 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 cleaning products and services, office furniture, textiles, 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 examples of wording that may be used for this purpose.
