Main mistakes when implementing environmental criteria in procurement

2020 // IHOBE - Public Society for Environmental Management, Basque Government

With the approval of the new Public Procurement Directives and the Spanish Law 9/2017 on Public Contracting, in theory, it is clearly defined where and how to introduce environmental criteria in the tendering process. However, in practice, those in charge still have doubts about how to do it correctly.

Ecoinstitut has worked for more than 20 years in greening of tenders, as part of the technical assistance to Barcelona City Council, the Catalan Government, the Basque Government, and occasionally also to other administrations and public entities. The tenders' greening – more than 1,000 tenders – includes both the definition of criteria for tendering documents, the review and validation of tenders greened by organisations, as well as the evaluation of offers at the request of contracting authorities.

At the same time, Ecoinstitut has actively participated in networks and working groups for green public procurement at the local, regional and international levels. As a strategic partner of the Procura+ Network and the SPP Next Expert Group, Ecoinstitut has been able to contrast the practices and the application of the Public Procurement Directives in different contexts.

Based on this experience, Ecoinstitut identifies the main doubts, problems and errors in its application and produces, commissioned by Ihobe, the publication Common errors in the introduction of environmental criteria in public procurement (in Spanish), presenting the main problems and their correction based on the contracting regulations, all illustrated with practical examples in the form of error and solution.