Green public procurement

EU Green Public Procurement and Circular Economy directives aim to change public procurement rules from regulating how we buy to determining what we buy.

This page contains information on Green Public Procurement guidelines, tools and templates, case studies, useful links and SEAI's role in Ecodesign labelling to support you in the process.

Introduction to energy related Green Public Procurement

Green Public Procurement 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."

While Green Public Procurement is a voluntary instrument and Member States determine the extent to which policies or criteria are applied, it plays a key role in the EU's efforts to boosting a resource-efficient economy.

Green Public Procurement is within the framework of Strategic Public Procurement, together with Socially Responsible Public Procurement (SRPP) and Innovation Procurement. The basic concept of Green Public Procurement relies on having clear, verifiable, justifiable, and ambitious environmental criteria for products and services, based on a life-cycle approach and scientific evidence base.

The European Commission  has been developing voluntary Green Public Procurement criteria for several product groups. Furthermore, following the adoption of the 2020 Circular Economy Action Plan, the Commission is proposing minimum mandatory Green Public Procurement criteria and targets in sectoral legislation and phase in compulsory reporting to monitor its uptake.

Green Public Procurement guidelines

Green Public Procurement guidelines aim to help you and your organisation understand the criteria being applied. Each category has a technical guide at EU level with detailed references and reasoning. These guidelines are a good place to start for all your energy related procurement categories.

Green Public Procurement tools and templates

Once you have a clearer idea of where your organisation's significant environmental impacts lie and in which categories you might lead your Green Procurement efforts, these tools and templates will help you accelerate your tendering process.

Green Public Procurement case studies

If you have a procurement or related project you think is worthy of recognition and publication by SEAI, please email [email protected]. You can also learn more abour previous project in the case studies below. To contact the public bodies involved, reach out via the SEAI Public Sector EnergyLINK portal.

Useful links

SEAI's ecodesign role

Most products covered by the ecodesign regulations and sold on the EU market comply with the regulations. However, a small but significant number do not comply. SEAI's role encompasses two key areas:

  • Market surveillance: SEAI's responsibility in that regard is to organise market surveillance activities that seek to ensure that non-compliant products are identified, checked, and removed from the market or brought into compliance.
  • Advice and signposting: SEAI also assists market operators who are bringing a product onto the market or putting it into service to comply with the Regulations through providing advice and signposting to other sources of advice.

Since 2011, Public Bodies are required to procure from the SEAI Triple E list, 'or an equivalent' list. It provides  a simple filter to acquire the top 15% most energy efficient equipment in any applicable category, which is updated twice a year by suppliers and SEAI.

Our role

How to procure energy

The Office of Government Procurement manages the public sector contract for procurement of electricity, liquid, and gaseous fuels. The schedule is updated on a quarterly basis so that a rolling nine month forward view is always visible. Further information about the Schedule of Frameworks and Contracts is available in the Buyer Zone for public sector users who are logged in. Public sector users are asked to log-in here and go to the "news and updates" section of Buyer Zone to view this information. 

Please go to the Buyer Zone login and read the regular updates on OGP frameworks for energy supplies to government and security services.

How will we report?

Guidance on the Obligations to Monitor and Report on GPP have been issued by the EPA and are available to download here.

A copy of the EPA Excel format reporting template can be requested from [email protected]. The completed Excel file should be returned to [email protected] by the end of March each year. Queries and support requests should be directed to the same email.