Given escalating environmental challenges, the imperative for governments to embrace sustainable practices has never been more pressing. The urgency of curbing climate change and preserving biodiversity requires concerted efforts across all sectors and stakeholders. Governments play a pivotal role in steering policies and enacting change for a greener future, both domestically and internationally.
The “Governing Green’’ pillar of the OECD Reinforcing Democracy Initiative demonstrates how global challenges such as climate change offer opportunities for governments to revisit and upgrade public governance tools, including public procurement, to lead by example and drive change. Government procurement is one tool through which the public sector can directly influence the green transition. With procurement making up around 13%, on average, of GDP in OECD countries, governments wield considerable power in various sectors. Outcomes-based procurement strategies can significantly drive progress towards greener societies and economies.
The OECD 2015 Recommendation on Public Procurement calls upon countries to foster a balanced approach to the use of procurement to achieve economy, efficiency, and strategic policy objectives. Green public procurement (GPP), i.e., public purchasing of products and services that are less environmentally damaging, is increasingly used by countries to achieve such policy objectives in the area of environmental protection. In 2015, the OECD carried out a first stocktaking exercise to look at GPP uptake in OECD and G20 countries. This exercise identified some key obstacles to successful implementation of GPP, including the perception that green products and services are more expensive than conventional ones, public officials’ lack of expertise in integrating environmental standards in the procurement process, and the absence of monitoring mechanisms to evaluate whether GPP achieves its goals.
Under the leadership of the Working Party of the Leading Practitioners on Public Procurement (LPP), the OECD conducted a comprehensive survey on green public procurement (GPP) in 2022 to better understand how public procurement is used to generate environmental benefits. In total, 38 countries replied to the GPP Survey, 34 OECD countries and 4 accession candidate countries (Brazil, Bulgaria, Romania and Peru). The Survey closed in November 2022; therefore, any GPP developments after this date is not included in the main report but appear in the country factsheets in Annex A.
This Report builds on the results of the Survey, as well as additional desk research and bilateral exchanges with country representatives. It identifies good practices regarding green procurement strategies but also persistent challenges and provides recommendations to help governments unlock the potential of public procurement towards to support the green transition.
The report strives to empower governments and stakeholders with the insights needed to navigate the complexities of sustainable public procurement and its impact.
It was approved by the Public Governance Committee on 19 June 2024 and prepared for publication by the Secretariat.