This is an old press release and the information may be outdated
Challenging public purchasing to act on environmental and social responsibility.
In a first of its kind collaboration, a group of third party environmental and sustainability certifications have joined forces to challenge the public sector to become more socially and environmentally responsible in their purchasing practices. The initiative coincides with the publication of EU’s expanded directive for public purchasing. The new directive expands opportunities to include environmental and social aspects when using public funds to buy goods and services. In EU, public purchasing accounts for around 200 billion Euro annually.
We think the time to act is now if we are to reach our goals related to the environment, climate and global poverty. Whoever wins the elections this fall will inherit a serious responsibility for driving our society in a more sustainable direction. This is why we have come together to challenge those of you in the public sector to set a goal that by 2020, at least 50 percnet of all products purchased by the public sector should carry a third party certification that focuses on environmental and social responsibility.
Current procurement legislation has in some ways hindered including environmental and social aspects. Instead, the focus has been on providing detailed information about individual environmental, chemical, energy or social crite