Circularity in green public procurement

EU level: The EU CE monitoring framework (CEMF) includes GPP to measure the share of public procurement procedures above the EU thresholds (in number and value), which include environmental elements. No data is currently available in the CEMF for this indicator.

National level: Data at country level exist, however some difficulties arise to identify and compare them. National-level data could be extracted from MS GPP websites or reports, using the list of organisations listed by the EC as a starting point. The data presented shows what information can be extracted at member state level, here in the case of Belgium. The metric depicts the results from an analysis of 144,749 public procurement notices produced between 2011 and 2016. Notably, 26% of these notices included some considerations for sustainability, including 2% with considerations specifically regarding circular economy.

Green public procurement (GPP) is about the purchase of goods, services and works that have a reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle, by public authorities. Public authorities across the EU are major consumers, spending approximately 1.8 trillion euro annually (i.e., around 14% of the EU’s gross domestic product); as such, increasing the share of GPP could yield significant environmental benefits. GPP is an interesting financing indicator for circularity due to this high potential and due to the significant role that public authorities have in driving the circularity transition, alongside private actors and the general public.