Harnessing Public Procurement for the Green Transition

Slovenia

Framework, scope, action-plans

In addition to the Public Procurement Act (2015) the Government of the Republic of Slovenia adopted a Decree on GPP in 2012, with the aim of reducing emissions and making the public sector a role model for society and the private sector. The GPP Decree was revised in 2018 (Uradni list RS, št. 51/17 z dne 19. 9. 2017) in order to promote markets for green products and support the country’s transition to a circular economy. The last update of the GPP Decree was in 2021 (Uradni list RS, št. 121/2021 from 23. 7. 2021) with the additional two green subjects. In particular, the GPP Decree provides for the obligation of contracting authorities to integrate environmental considerations for different procurement categories (e.g. products, services, and works).

Several line ministries (e.g. Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Energy, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Infrastructure) are involved in the preparation and amendments of the GPP Decree. In addition, the Decree is often recognised and mentioned in the preparation of other environmental policies and strategies. For example, GPP implementation and support is a measure in the National Energy and Climate Plan (Nacionalni energetski in podnebni načrt), which emphasises the potential of public procurement to contribute to the country’s climate neutrality goal.

Implementation

The GPP Decree requires contracting authorities to include minimum and additional environmental criteria for 22 different procurement categories, including electricity, food and catering services, textiles, office paper and hygienic paper products, electronic office equipment, televisions, refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, dishwashers, dryers, vacuum cleaners and air conditioners, furniture, water heaters and space heaters, hot water storage, sanitary fittings, toiletry equipment and urinal equipment, wall panels, buildings, roads, vehicles, tires, electric bulbs and lamps and indoor lightning systems, road lighting, cleaning products and services, gardening services, furniture, and -noise road barriers.

Environmental criteria can be included in tender documentation in various ways, including as technical specifications, exclusion, and participation criteria, award criteria, and specific contractual provisions. In addition, contracting authorities may either develop their own GPP criteria or they can use models of the GPP criteria provided by the ministries (e.g. Ministry of Public Administration and Ministry of Environment, Climate and Energy), and that are published on the website of the Ministry of Public Administration.

The Regulation on GPP also defines GPP-related targets for individual procurement items that contracting authorities must achieve in each procurement procedure (e.g. the proportion of lamps allowing the use of electric lamps ranked in the highest energy class available in the market is at least 90%). The selected GPP criteria must therefore be in line with the goals set in the Decree.

Measurement and impact

Contracting authorities report on the use of GPP through a digital platform that is linked to the eProcurement system. In addition, contracting authorities are required to state in the published contract notice whether green criteria have been used and whether the obligations and targets set out in the GPP Decree on GPP have been met. Data on GPP is publicly available through the annual GPP report.

In 2022, Slovenia carried out an analysis of the impact of GPP as part of a larger initiative called "LIFE IP project Care4Climate". The study covered the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 and focused on a limited number of product and service categories: electrical and electronic equipment, road vehicles and design and/or construction of buildings. It assessed a range of impacts for each procurement category, covering environmental, economic and social aspects.

The purpose of the analysis was to develop the methodology, define the baseline and assess the impacts of GPP, in particular in terms of market share, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, wider environmental and climate impacts, and economic and social impacts. The results of the monitoring will be used to inform and improve the design of GPP-related policies and instruments, as well as to provide additional support and motivation to public purchasers and suppliers.

Recent developments

As part of the LIFE IP Care4Climate project, the Slovenian authorities are supporting both public procurement practitioners and producers to implement GPP actively and more ambitiously. In November 2023, they organised a workshop on circular procurement of investments and buildings, which was very well received. Several activities are in progress to support the stakeholders, in 2024 the main focus will be on organic food, use of wood, cleaning services and IT equipment. Among the promotional activities, there are two interesting ones in progress: an open competition for a product made of used wood and an open competition for the best small circular procurement.