We are glad to announce our recent collaboration with the Joint Research Center of the European Commission in Seville for a research project focused on the topic of maintenance of public space. The project aims to define the EU Green Public Procurement (GPP) Criteria for Public Space Maintenance.

But.. what is exactly EU GPP? Here there is a short description coming directly from the European Commission official webpage.

Green Public Procurement (GPP) is defined in the Communication (COM (2008) 400) “Public procurement for a better environment” as “a process whereby public authorities seek to procure goods, services and works with a reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle when compared to goods, services and works with the same primary function that would otherwise be procured.”  GPP is a voluntary instrument, which means that Member States and public authorities can determine the extent to which they implement it.

Public authorities are major consumers in Europe: they spend approximately 1.8 trillion euro annually, representing around 14 % of the EU’s gross domestic product. By using their purchasing power to choose goods and services with lower impacts on the environment, they can make an important contribution to sustainable consumption and production.

Green purchasing is also about influencing the market. By promoting and using GPP, public authorities can provide industry with real incentives for developing green technologies and products. In some sectors, public purchasers command a significant share of the market (e.g. public transport and construction, health services and education) and so their decisions have considerable impact. EU GPP is an important tool as it can contribute to the stimulation of the market for environmentally-friendly goods, works and services and to contribute to the development of a more resource-efficient economy in the EU. The Commission has developed EU GPP criteria for around 20 different product groups.

Here the complete list of 20 product groups considered for EU GPP Criteria, and as you may notice the range is really wide, from Office Building Design, Construction and Management, to Transport or Computer and monitors, to mention a few.

We are now working on the first phase of the project for the development of the EU GPP Criteria for Public Space Maintenance. One of the very first document produced is a Stakeholder Questionnaire aiming to define the scope. The questionnaire has been sent to several identified stakeholders from the supply side (Providers of maintenance services, equipment, public furniture, etc), demand side (public and non-public procurers) and other stakeholders, such as national or local policy makers, environmental organizations, urban planners and designers, citizens organizations, etc.

The scoping questionnaire is available at the following link for all interested parties to contribute:

http://susproc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/Public_space_maintenance/documents.html

If you are interested in participating please express your opinion through the questionnaire, and submit it to the email address

JRC-PUBLIC-SPACE-MAINTENANCE@ec.europa.eu before the 17th March 2017.

Further questions or registration by sending an email to JRC-PUBLIC-SPACE-MAINTENANCE@ec.europa.eu