Harnessing Public Procurement for the Green Transition

Germany

Framework, scope, action-plans

The Federal Climate Change Act (last amended in 2021) sets the overarching goal of a climate-neutral Federal Administration by 2030. The Act stipulates a requirement according to which the Federal Government needs to consider, in public procurement procedures, how it can contribute to achieving climate protection targets, as specified in the Act itself. The Government must give preference to procuring products that achieve the goal of reducing GHG emissions at the lowest cost, over the entire life cycle.

The German Sustainable Development Programme of Measures, which was last revised in 2021, also aims at ensuring a climate-neutral federal administration by 2030. Notably, Chapter IV focuses on aligning public procurement with the principles underpinning sustainable development and promotes the use of sustainable public procurement, including GPP, at the level of the Federal Government.

The German Sustainable Development Programme of Measures sets the basis for the creation of the Inter-ministerial Committee for Sustainable Public Procurement (Interministerieller Ausschuss für nachhaltige öffentliche Beschaffung). The Committee was established in June 2022, and it is co-lead by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community. Its tasks include, among other things, the identification of priority products and services for sustainability purposes, the definition of sustainability criteria and requirements for public procurement at the federal level. The task is also to steer and co-ordinate measures to promote sustainable procurement, including the participation of the Länder, municipalities and civil society, with the aim of creating a practice of sustainable procurement that is as uniform as possible across Germany.

Implementation

GPP-related targets at the Federal level have been defined for textile and vehicles; the German Sustainable Development Programme of Measures stipulates GPP targets for products like hygiene paper, work shoes and furniture. The measures implemented are reviewed as part of a monitoring process annually.

Moreover, the Circular Economy Act mandates contracting authorities to integrate the environmental-protection and waste-prevention criteria in public tenders. Notably, it requires contracting authorities to opt for solutions that limit the production of waste and pollution, promote resource-efficiency, and that are characterised by durability, repairability, re-useability and recyclability.

The German Sustainable Development Programmes of Measures also sets out special provisions for the procurement of certain product categories (i.e. textiles, cleaning products, ICT, working shoes, furniture, copy paper, toilet tissue, catering services and food) to integrate sustainability considerations, but these only apply to procurement at the federal level.

Moreover, the General Administrative Instruction on the Procurement of Climate-friendly Services (2022) - also known as “AVV Klima” - contains specific obligations to promote climate-friendly solutions at the award stage. For example, it requires to use quality label (e.g. the Blue Angel or the European Ecolabel), as well as to consider energy-efficiency performance, life-cycle costs, GHG emissions. The AVV Klima also introduces a “negative” list of products and services that Federal Government Departments should no longer procure. The list, among other things, covers refrigeration, air conditioning and the building sector:

• Multisplit/VRF air conditioners with more than 10 kilowatts nominal cooling capacity;

• Liquid chillers with more than 10 kilowatts nominal cooling capacity with refrigerant GWP ≥ 150;

• Refrigerators and freezers and other stationary and mobile refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment with halogenated refrigerants (if alternatives are available on the market);

• Building materials containing or manufactured using hydrochlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons.

To support the implementation of GPP across Germany, guidance is provided by the National Competence Center for Sustainable Public Procurement (KNB) and by the Competence Centers created by individual federal states (e.g. Berlin, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein).

The KNB is based at the Procurement Office of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community (BMI), and it advises all public procurement offices in Germany on environmental, economic, and social criteria. In addition to that, it offers training modules for public authorities in the field of sustainable procurement. Information on sustainable procurement by federal, land, and municipal authorities can be accessed on the KNB website. Furthermore, KNB is launching the Joint Federal-Länder-Training Initiative for Sustainable Procurement (“Gemeinsame Bund-Länder-Fortbildungsinitiative”), together with federal states. Some of participating federal states include Bavaria, Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hamburg, which concluded administrative agreements. The aim is to broadly support procurement offices with training courses on sustainable procurement.

Measurement and impact

In accordance with the Public Procurement Statistics Ordinance (VergStatVO), contracting authorities are required to transmit data on procurement procedures to the Federal Statistical Office. Since October 2020, data on public contracts have been systematically collected by the Federal Statistical Office across the entire national territory, and this data is also publicly available. Moreover, the statistics can also show whether contracting authorities have used sustainability criteria in public tenders; from certain thresholds on, there is a mandatory requirement for contracting authorities to report on the use of GPP.

Recent developments

Since 2023 the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action is working on a “procurement transformation package” (Vergabetransformationspaket), which aims at strengthening the mandatory use of GPP criteria in the national public procurement Law.

Moreover, the role of public procurement to achieve environmental objectives and promote a resource-efficient economy is going to be mentioned in the National Strategy for Circular Economy (expected in 2024).