Green Public Procurement National Action Plan  launched

Public procurement, which represents a significant proportion of Malta’s economic activity, can also affect the environment. Recognizing this, the government decided to ensure that whatever it buys or leases has a minimal impact on the environment. This practice is called “green public procurement”, meaning that products or services purchased by government must be environmentally friendly.

The Green Public Procurement National Action Plan seeks to promote the purchasing of environmentally friendly goods, products and services. The plan recognises that a shift to a greener economy would require strong signals and incentives on the part of the government, which is expected to lead by example.

Green public procurement is a win-win tool that leverages economic and environmental objectives. On the one hand, it enables the public sector to obtain the best value for money and procure low-carbon, environmentally-friendly goods, works and services. It therefore represents an efficient use of public finances and promotes environmental improvement.

Green public procurement is also an opportunity for market players to expand the boundaries of the growing market for environmentally-positive products and services and to create further green jobs in the process.

In order to fully realize these opportunities, the National Action Plan for Green Public Procurement requires all public sector organizations, including, amongst other, government ministries, departments, authorities, local councils, public hospitals and schools, to follow some simple criteria when deciding what to buy. These criteria help to select products that are made with environmentally-friendly materials, using production processes that consume less energy and resources, and that result in less waste.

In preparation of the National Action Plan, a range of studies and enquiries were undertaken in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of the local scenario, thus making it possible to set realistic targets and propose means of their delivery.

The Plan and other documentation on green public procurement may be downloaded from https://secure2.gov.mt/tsdu/gpp?l=1

The Plan sets out GPP targets for eighteen product and service groups for which common GPP criteria have been agreed at EU level as follows:

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