An Overview of Governmental Programs for Green Purchasing [Part 1]

At the time of the writing of the blog edition, Green Procurement and Purchasing is still in its infancy. Whereas large private companies are often held out as the most proactive organizations, that has not, yet, proven true for Green Procurement and Purchasing. Instead, public organizations around the world have taken the lead on this topic. Largely, this may be due to political necessity. Regardless of the cause, an assessment of the various approaches is interesting and helps to explain how some approaches are robust and others are weak. In developing your organization’s response to its green initiatives, please consider the current state of affairs from around the world.

A simple Internet query will yield one many aspects and insights to various programs. However, for the purposes of this blog, the top trading countries will be assessed. The G-8 countries of: the USA, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United Kingdom, provide a ready-made list to compare [note: government green procurement practices are the sole topic of the next blog edition].

Canada. Canada’s national government has started its green journey. It has formed the Office of Greening Government Operations [OGGO] that has begun to implement standards and training for Green Procurement. The office also works within the Canadian federal system to promote sustainable office buildings, ‘environmental citizenship’ [what each federal employee can do to help reduce waste], proper e-waste disposal as well as other initiatives. OGGO also works with provincial entities to improve overall greening of operations.

With regard to Green Procurement, OGGO has developed online training, decision tools, written guidance, made purchasing department heads responsible for achieving goals, has goals, has a written policy and other guidance for types of purchases. An example of improvement metrics is found in the Sustainable Development in Government Operations organization that tracks the percent of procurement budgeted funds spent on green purchases to the whole. This same organization has proposed additional metrics that are worth mentioning. They are:

• Environmental Load. Are measures for actions taken and results of those activities such as water consumed, waste to landfills, total ozone depleting substances used, etc.;
• Cost Load. Are measures of the cost for environmentally related actions, or results, such as the cost per gallon of water, the liability of contaminated, sties, etc.;
• Efficiency Measure. A measure derived from either Environmental Load or Cost Load and normalized to a denominator to obtain a measure of load per person or per other unit of measure;
• Activity. A measure of the organization’s workforce that are involved in green activities and training;
• Proportion. A measure of infrastructure within the organization on the count of alternative fueled vehicles, facilities with water conservation programs, etc.

Japan. On April 1, 2001, a law came into effect in Japan called the ‘Green Purchasing Law.’ The law’s main focus was to provide the tools and methods by which Japan could become a ‘recycling-based society’ by supporting the goal of promoting Goods and Services that reduce Environmental Loads by:

• Promoting greener purchases by public organizations [i.e., Government];
• Provide information on environmentally friendly Goods and Services.

The methods by which the country of Japan hoped to achieve these goals are to have governmental agencies and ministries act to purchase greener by implementing policies and promoting the eco-labeling programs of finished products.

In the act of purchasing, the law creates the expectation that fact-based data shall be used as a ‘factor for determination’ in selecting one product, or service, over another based on a designated list of items from 17 different categories [such as Paper, Office Furniture, Lighting, etc.].

Since the implementation of the law, the Japanese government has measured progress on the percent of green products/services purchased. For example, over 90% of Paper products purchased are considered green. The national government has also continued to monitor progress of its overall implementation plan by noting the adoption of green purchasing practices by prefectures, districts, cities and towns or villages – all at the governmental level. As one might believe, this studied indicated that the green initiative was implemented more readily in larger cities than in smaller towns. Also, the survey results indicate that the main detriment to opting for greener products, or services, was the premium paid for those products.

The Ministry of Environment [MOE] is responsible for implementing of the above law. Prior to this law coming into being in 2001, the MOE took actions in 1996 to establish the Green Purchasing Network [GPN]. The GPS in still active today with over 2,000 industry and governmental members. The organization helps to establish criteria for those member organization to make purchase decision on products that are green decisions.

France. In 2007-2009 the French government adopted action plan for green procurement. In France’s overall framework, it has national laws for environmental purchasing that are deployed by multiple agencies and for various levels of government from national to the local level. France has also established goals for improved action but does not have an overall method of tracking the goals. Nonetheless, some of the French government’s goals include action on recyclables, lighting, buildings, low emission autos and wood products.

French officials are able to ‘go green’ by using ecolabels, ISO 14000 standards and the EMAS [Eco-Management and Audit Scheme] as tools. These standards are developed primarily by the Agency for Energy and Environment Management. Despite such actions, it appears that the public sector of procurement in France lags behind the private sector in energy purchases with many private sector firms adopting the ‘kWh Equilibre’ option to obtain 100% renewable energy.

This dialogue is continued on the next blog edition. Part 2 of an ‘Overview of Governmental Programs for Green Purchasing’ will cover the remaining G-8 countries less the United States that will be subject of its own blog edition. Please continue reading the Green Purchasing Blog at www.recyclechain.com and thanks.

This entry was posted on 29. August 2010 at 01:19 and is filed under Green Procurement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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