Buying Green is a key priority for the UK government. Public sector bodies in the UK spend over £220 billion on goods and services. This gives them the opportunity to use their purchasing power to influence suppliers for the wider benefit of UK environment, economy and its citizens. It is now widely accepted that the UK government needs to embed sustainable procurement as a key component of value for money procurement to secure long-term benefit rather than focussing on short term advantage. For public procurers buying green addresses many environmental issues such as waste, water consumption and carbon emissions. However, being environmentally sustainable can also help cut costs. For example, buying energy efficient products can not only save on energy bills but also cut carbon emissions - carbon costs money, cutting carbon saves money.

Defra is the UK government department responsible for the environment, for food, farming and for rural affairs. Defra's Sustainable Products and Consumers (SPC) team is responsible for projects to deliver UK sustainable public procurement policy and product specifications. 

One of the team's key projects is to support the achievement of the UK target for the EU's Green Public Procurement initiative. This is an EU initiative designed to allow purchasers across the public sector to take account of environmental factors when buying goods, services or works. As a key element of the European Commission's sustainable consumption and production action plan launched in 2008, the aim was to improve the environmental performance of products and increase the demand for more sustainable goods and production technologies. 

GPP is one of the building blocks of the SCP action plan and covers product groups which have a high impact on the environment such as construction, food and catering services, and transport. It is closely aligned to the Eco-label scheme which provides suppliers of products and services with an environmental benchmark for their production and performance. Indeed many of the GPP criteria are derived from Ecolabel standards. 

This requires that 50% of procurement tenders should be "green" by 2010. The percentage will be expressed in both number and value of green contracts as compared to the overall number and value of contracts concluded in the sectors for which common "core" GPP criteria have been identified. The Commission are also working on assessing success through outcome indicators such as CO 2 emissions.

GPP sets minimum, 'core' criteria as well as best practice "comprehensive" specifications for a range of product groups. Core criteria address the most significant environmental impacts; comprehensive criteria are intended for procurers who wish to purchase the best environmental products available. 

GPP can support sustainable public procurement by providing stakeholders with an opportunity to develop a more sustainable supply chain. 

A strategic module which seeks to raise the political support for green public procurement within an organisation targeting in particular decision makers.

A legal module which seeks to clarify legal issues and is designed for both strategic and operational levels.

An operational module that includes concrete examples of environmental criteria for 10 product and service groups, for use in public tendering procedures.

Adopting GPP means that contracting authorities whether for local bodies or purchasing organisations can take into account environmental elements when procuring goods, services or works at all stages of the project and within the lifecycle of procured goods. This enables organisations like local authorities to have a clear way of demonstrating how they will meet their Carbon Reduction Commitments and other requirements to reduce their impact on the environment.

Another advantage of GPP is that its EU wide scope means that competition for goods and services is not distorted by Member States adopting diverging procurement criteria. Furthermore, standards which are applicable across the EU provide incentives for European industry to invest in new technology that in the long term will improve its competitiveness. 

The UK is currently one of the GPP forerunners as well as the achievement of the UK target, Defra aims to spread best practice internationally and influence the direction of EU initiatives so that they deliver challenging, achievable and coherent product sustainability improvements by 2011. 

Defra is also focusing on raising awareness of the opportunities offered by GPP to organisations from the wider public sector. In particular, we are collaborating with regional organisations to develop a national training package that will demonstrate the practical steps procurers can take to buy green as well as the impact it can have on their targets for efficiency and sustainability.

• Construction (covering raw materials, such as wood, aluminium, steel, concrete, glass as well as construction products and operational and end-of-life aspects of buildings, maintenance services, on-site performance of works contracts)
• Food and catering services
• Transport and transport services
• Energy (including electricity, heating and cooling coming from renewable energy sources)
• Office machinery and computers
• Clothing, uniforms and other textiles
• Paper and printing services
• Furniture
• Cleaning products and services
• Equipment used in the health sector

A link to further background information on GPP, along with the GPP toolkit (a package designed for public procurement practitioners, detailing the specific proposed criteria), is included below

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