The Procura+ Manual. A Guide to Cost-Effective Sustainable Public Procurement

The Procura+ Manual A Guide to Cost-Effective Sustainable Public Procurement, gathers the results of the Working Group “DEEP - Dissemination of energy efficiency measures in public buildings”, supported by UE Program “IEE – Intelligent Energy Europe. The European DEEP project aimed at promoting opportunities for increasing energy efficiency through high environmental standards in the public buildings sector. It has been designed to provide clear, easy-to-understand guidance on how to implement sustainable procurement in practice. It has been prepared by people with years of direct experience in working in public sector procurement, and in how to integrate sustainability considerations. It is based upon the first Procura+ manual, written and printed in 2004. The manual is designed to provide practical implementation advice, presenting guidance on how sustainability concerns can be integrated into the procurement process, providing both a model for developing and managing the process, and actual purchasing criteria for six highpriority product groups (construction, IT equipment, cleaning products, food, buses and electricity) which are legally compliant and can be inserted directly into tendering documents. These product groups were selected following a detailed discussion process within the RELIEF project6 for a number of reasons: • The most significant environmental impacts through the product life-cycle • The availability of cost-effective environmentally preferable solutions • The importance of the product within the typical pubic authority budget The manual also acts as the implementation guide for authorities participating in the Procura+ Campaign. Any European public authority can join Procura+, both to demonstrate your commitment to sustainable procurement and to make use of the substantial practical resources the Campaign provides The Manual contains the following information: • How to integrate sustainability into procurement – clear guidance on how to integrate sustainability criteria into tendering – from the subject matter, to technical specifications, selection and award criteria, and contract clauses • Information on the cost of sustainable procurement – an introduction to the concept of Life-Cycle Costing, and advice on how to keep costs down • How to manage sustainable procurement: The Milestone process – a simple implementation model, based on a typical management cycle for ensuring the systematic inclusion of sustainability concerns in procurement • Key purchasing criteria – a small set of clear purchasing criteria, focusing on the most important environmental and social impacts, which any public authority can use directly in the procurement of six key product groups - construction, IT equipment, cleaning products, food, buses and electricity • Guide to monitoring performance – a straightforward approach to monitoring your sustainable procurement actions, based around the Procurement Scorecard concept