General information

Sustainable development is defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The term “sustainable development” was popularised by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in its 1987 report entitled Our Common Future. This term gained international recognition as advanced human development strategy. Sustainable development suggests for the world the positive long term vision of wealthier, righter society and the vision of cleaner, safer and healthier environment of the society which provides present and future generations with the better quality of living circumstances.

The main principles and provisions of sustainable development were formulated in Rio de Janeiro world summit meeting in 1992. The pillars of sustainable development are environment, economy and society. Sustainable development covers most of the policies including the public procurement policy.

Sustainable Public Procurement means that contracting authorities take into account all three pillars of sustainable development when procuring goods, services or works at all stages of the project. The aim of Sustainable Public Procurement is to ensure that purchased goods, services or works are sustainable as much as possible. It means that they affect less the environment and contribute to positive solutions of social development and ethical problems. While implementing sustainable procurement, the environmental and social aspects are systematically integrated into the whole procurement process - the determination of needs, preparing the technical specifications, selection procedure, awarding the contract and evaluation of the results.

Green Public Procurement, which is a part of Sustainable Public Procurement, means that contracting authorities take into account environmental elements when procuring goods, services or works at all stages of the project and within several stages or the entire life-cycle of procured goods.

If the Green Public Procurement process is successful, the purchased product to compare with the other product which performs the same function has following features (according to National Green Procurement Implementation Programme):

·        Less of natural resources is used and the environment is less polluted to produce the product or to provide services and works;

·        Less of energy is used, renewable resources and ecological resources of energy are used to produce and use the product or to provide services and works;

·        The product contains less or doesn’t contain at all hazardous, toxic or environmentally harmful substances;

·        It is durable, strong, functional, doesn’t pollute and is not harmful to the environment;

·        It can be reused many times;

·        When it becomes waste, it can be recycled or reused.

Public Procurement spending amounts to as much as 16-18% of the EU’s gross domestic product, making buyers of public sector an important group of consumers. This purchasing power can have a significant impact on the market by influencing the suppliers and setting an example for private procurements. Through adopting the principles of sustainable development to the public procurement procedures, public authorities can provide the industry with incentives to develop new and better technologies and encourage sustainable patterns of behaviour. Nowadays more and more attention is paid to Sustainable Public Procurement in the EU and other countries.