Representatives from 19 countries from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) met in Biel, Switzerland, Feb. 24-26, to discuss opportunities to expand public purchase of products with a reduced impact on the environment.
The use of government purchasing to achieve environmental policy objectives is an important priority of the environmental ministers of OECD countries and the United National Commission on Sustainable Development. NACo's participation at this meeting was funded by the U.S. EPA's Pollution Prevention Division.
Government consumption of products and services composes a significant percentage of total domestic purchases in OECD countries. In the United States, combined federal, state and local government procurement represents 20 percent of the gross national product.
Public purchasing is extremely diverse and can involve items from pencils and paper to electric generators and major defense equipment. It includes durable and nondurable products and services, such as health care and education.
Because the government's consumption of goods is so extensive, the environmental effects of such decisions are quite consequential. Additionally, federal governmental initiatives to favor purchase of products with a reduced burden on the environment is expected to stimulate similar activities on the local government level, as well manufacturers' investment in new technologies and new products.
Conference participants, representing federal environmental agencies, nonprofit organizations, local governments and business, exchanged ideas and experiences during the three-day meeting concerning how to use public purchasing as a driver toward "greener" products and services.
The government of Japan, for example, adopted an Action Plan for Greening of Government Operations in 1995, which sets specific targets for government purchasing and the methods used to achieve these.
Purchasing targets include: 1) reducing the total content of virgin pulp contained in papers purchased and used in government offices to approximately 80 percent or less over current levels by 2000, 2) reducing water and electricity usage in office buildings per unit of office space to less than 90 percent of current levels, and 3) increasing the ratio of low-polluting vehicles in government-owned fleets for use in administrative work to approximately 10 percent by 2000.
While the action plan focuses on federal-level activities, Japan is actively recruiting voluntary participation by local governments.
In Germany, purchasing with the environment in mind is a generally accepted practice. The culmination of these activities is the new 1996 Business Cycle Bill that requires federal institutions to procure products that avoid or reduce waste, use secondary materials, have greater durability, and are either recyclable or can be repaired.
The German environmental label, known as the Blue Angel, currently identifies more than 4,000 products with a reduced impact on the environment. This label can be used by public purchasers on all governmental levels, as well as private consumers, to select products satisfying objective criteria for environmental preference.
Greener public purchasing is a grass-roots phenomena in Switzerland involving committed officials and purchasers from the federal, regional and municipal administrations. Although the country has not yet developed an official policy for the so-called greening of government or public purchasing, the federal government supports two information exchanges and a series of research projects.
In Denmark, an overall Strategy for the Promotion of Sustainable Product Procurement Policy was first developed by the Danish Ministry for the Environment and Energy in 1991, followed by an Action Plan for Sustainable Public Procurement Policy in 1994.
The action plan does not yet focus on county and local government, but will likely extend to these authorities in the future. In anticipation of this, some local governments, such as the Herning Local Council, have implemented their own environmentally friendly purchasing policies. Herning's policy, adopted in 1995, advocates that all products be subjected to an evaluation that considers environmental effects throughout a product's life cycle, including production, distribution, use and disposal, as well as the overall need for the product.
Back home in the United States, greener public purchasing has largely focused on "buying recycled." The 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act calls upon the federal government to purchase products with recycled content.
Efforts are also being made to consider a range of other environmental criteria - such as energy efficiency and hazardous material reduction - in public purchasing. The EPA is currently developing guidance to assist federal agencies in identifying these products. In addition, a number of local governments are pioneering their own approach to environmentally preferable purchasing.
National representatives agreed there was considerable value in using public purchasing power to develop markets for products with a reduced impact on the environment. To accomplish this goal, conference participants recognized the need to continue to work on the following items:
(For more information on the conference or on environmentally preferable purchasing, please contact Naomi Friedman by phone: 202/ 942-4262; or e-mail: nfriedma@naco.org.)
NACo will continue to provide counties with information on how to incorporate environmental policy goals into local purchasing decisions with support from the EPA Pollution Prevention Division.
A number of countries utilize official environmental labels to help consumers identify environmentally preferable products in the marketplace. Labels are awarded to products that meet objective environmental performance criteria.
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The Swan is the ecolabel of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark. |
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The EU Ecolabel of the European Commission was introduced in 1992. |
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The Blue Angel is the German Ecolabel, introduced in 1977. |
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The Environmental Choice Seal is Canada's ecolabel. |
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The U.S. Green Seal is a private certification program. |
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The Energy Star label indicates a product has satisfied the standards of the U.S. EPA for energy consumption. |