Green Public Procurement (GPP): What It Is and What It Means for Businesses

What is Green Public Procurement?

Green Public Procurement (GPP) is a strategy through which the public administration incorporates environmental requirements into the procurement procedures for goods, services, and construction projects—that is, public procurement.

In other words: when a public entity issues a call for bids, the GPP ensures that the numerous criteria used to evaluate bids also include factors related to environmental sustainability.

This has a direct impact on companies participating in public procurement: it is no longer enough to offer the lowest price or the best technical solution; on the contrary, companies must also demonstrate that their products and services meet certain environmental standards.

The goal of GPP is to use the purchasing power of the public sector as a lever to steer the market toward more sustainable solutions, encouraging businesses to innovate and reduce their environmental impact.

Is Green Public Procurement mandatory in the EU?

Green Public Procurement is not generally mandatory across the European Union. EU GPP criteria provide a common framework that public authorities can use to include environmental requirements in tenders, but their application still depends largely on national legislation and on the individual procurement procedure.

However, several Member States have introduced their own national systems and environmental procurement criteria:

• Italy uses the Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM), which are mandatory for the product, service and construction categories covered by national legislation.
• The Netherlands uses the MVI criteria (Maatschappelijk Verantwoord Inkopen), a national sustainable procurement framework that provides environmental criteria and different levels of ambition for multiple product categories.
• Germany provides a broad database of environmental procurement criteria developed by the German Environment Agency (UBA), covering more than 70 product groups. In addition, certain federal procurement rules make climate and resource-efficiency considerations mandatory in specific contexts.
• France has progressively strengthened environmental requirements in public procurement through national procurement legislation and sustainability-related rules.
• Spain has a national Green Public Procurement framework and environmental procurement criteria that complement the EU GPP approach.

These systems differ in terms of legal status, scope and level of obligation. For companies bidding across different EU markets, this means that environmental requirements can vary significantly from one country and tender to another.

What are green procurements?

Green procurement simply refers to public procurement in which the principles of GPP are applied. This translates into specific requirements that cover the entire life cycle of the product or service: from the production and sourcing of raw materials to final disposal.

This approach, known as Life Cycle Thinking, forms the basis of environmental assessment in green procurement: it considers not only the immediate impact, butthe overall impact throughout the product’s entire life cycle.

Who does Green Public Procurement apply to?

Green Public Procurement primarily concerns public authorities and contracting entities purchasing goods, services and works. Depending on national legislation, this can include central government authorities, local governments, public agencies, universities, healthcare bodies and other public-sector organisations.

For businesses, GPP matters from a different perspective: companies supplying the public sector may need to demonstrate that their products or services meet the environmental requirements included in a tender.

The exact requirements depend on the EU legislation, national procurement framework and specific tender involved.

What does GPP mean for companies?

For companies that work—or wish to work—with the government, the GPP has concrete implications on three levels:

• Market access: Where environmental requirements are included as mandatory technical specifications or selection conditions, companies must demonstrate compliance in order for their bid to be considered.
• Competitiveness: Even when Green Public Procurement documents do not explicitly exclude certain criteria, sustainability-related award criteria can make a difference in the award decision. For example, an EPD certification may provide verified environmental data that can be used to demonstrate product performance when required or rewarded by the tender.

Green Public Procurement as an Opportunity: From Minimum Requirements to Bonus Criteria

Environmental criteria can play different roles within a public procurement procedure. Some may be included as mandatory technical specifications or contract conditions, while others may be used as award criteria to reward products, services or bidders with stronger environmental performance.

For companies, this creates opportunities that go beyond minimum compliance. A company that goes beyond simply meeting minimum requirements—for example, by committing to conduct an Life Cycle Assessment, Environmental Product Declarations and recognised environmental certifications can help provide robust evidence of environmental performance where these elements are considered in a tender.

In practice, sustainability translates into competitiveness: a more sustainable company can afford to submit a less aggressively priced bid and make up for it with its technical score, without necessarily having to win by undercutting the competition. In a market where competition often hinges solely on price, these bonus criteria open up a different competitive landscape—one that’s more favorable to those who have invested in environmental quality.

EPD Certification in Green Procurement

One of the most useful tools for demonstrating environmental compliance in contexts regulated by Green Public Procurement is EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) certification. The EPD certifies a product’s environmental impact throughout its entire life cycle, based on a third-party-verified LCA study, and provides objective and comparable data that contracting authorities can evaluate during the bidding process.

Having an EPD means being able to demonstrate the environmental performance of your product in a transparent and verifiable way—a requirement that is increasingly sought after in both public procurement and private supply chains.

Investing in Sustainability as a Competitive Advantage

The shift in public procurement toward stricter environmental criteria is not a temporary phenomenon. It is a structural trend, supported by European and national regulations that are continually being updated.

For companies, this means that investing today in the sustainability of their products—through tools such as life cycle assessment (LCA) and EPD certifications—is not just a matter of regulatory compliance, but a strategic choice to remain competitive in the public procurement market and beyond.

How can we support you?

The GPP has made environmental compliance a requirement for accessing the public market. Tools such as LCA and EPD certification are no longer optional for companies that work with the public sector: they determine who participates in bids and who wins them.

Ollum supports companies in conducting LCA studies required by Green Public Procurement and in the EPD certification process; in addition, we assist companies in obtaining the key sustainability certifications required under Green Public Procurement.