Green public procurement could have a leverage effect on the market and become a driver of the transition
Only 62% of public administration in Italy adopts the policies necessary to guarantee green public procurement. The PA of the metropolitan municipalities does better, with an average of 79%. While the managing bodies of protected areas are those who have the most difficulty in applying the legislation. The green public procurement it is a driving force for stimulating the ecological transition in many sectors and its shortcomings make the process more cumbersome.
It is the photograph taken by Legambiente in the annual report on green public procurement. 8 years after the entry into force of the legislation, in particular i minimum environmental criteria (Cam)the application still proceeds with “the handbrake is on”underlines the Green Swan association.
Cams, mandatory since 2016, are especially in the spotlight. The new environmental requirements defined for the various phases of the purchasing process have the objective of identifying the best design solution, product or service from an environmental point of view, considering the entire cycle of life (based on market availability). Adopting them fully would have a leverage effect on the market and would encourage investments by companies to make their business more sustainable and be able to access public procurement contracts.
What is holding back green public procurement in Italy?
What is stopping this process? According to the Legambiente report, which is based on a survey conducted on a national scale on over 120 public administrations of different types, the delays are attributable to 53% of the contracting authorities difficulty “drawing up notices”. In 41% of cases one is reported adequate “lack of training”. and in 1 case out of 3 (34%) the problem is the lack of companies with suitable requirements.
These are “Achilles’ heels on which it is important to intervene to accelerate the pace and guarantee its full application by making up for lost time”, underlines the report, which calls for focusing above all on training competent and qualified personnel on the topic of CAM. Many mandatory documents for tenders, in fact, require that the Cams are adapted to the specific tender, an operation that requires specific technical skills.
The other big priority is monitoring the outcome of tenders. This is another flaw of no small importance: only 17% of contracting authorities carry out checks on the correct use of the tool. To resolve this issue, Legambiente suggests establishing the figure of a single contact person for green public procurement in each contracting authority. A contact person who should “connect the various administration policies (climate action plans, mobility plans, circular economy plans and waste prevention plans, urban regeneration plans, food recommendations, etc.) with use” of green public procurement.
For Silvano Falocco, director of Fondazione Ecosistemi who drafted the report together with Legambiente, “3 actions are necessary: each public administration must have a GPP contact person; a national program is needed to train and support PP.AA. in the inclusion of environmental and social criteria; we need a national Task Force that is able to verify respect for human and social rights along the production chains, to avoid social dumping”.
