With the new EU circular economy action plan, including sustainability aspects in requests for proposals will be mandatory for public procurers. Barton Finn looks into the action plan and presents some tips on how to prepare.
In Europe, public procurement routines haven’t really evolved since the introduction of the EU 2014 public procurement directives. Things are about to change with the new circular economy action plan recently unveiled by the Commission. With all eyes on making Europe climate neutral by 2050, it outlines significant changes likely to impact public procurement in many ways.
In essence, the plan points at the current failure in effectively exploiting the 14 billion worth of annual public spending to drive sustainable consumption and production models. To change that, it foresees to introduce minimum mandatory green public procurement criteria, targets and reporting obligations across the entire European Union.
How will European public purchasers be affected and what can they do to prepare for those evolutions? Here are a couple key takeaways: