American Chamber of Commerce in Romania

The need to get sustainable and ecological means for public procurement stems from the reality faced by the communities all over the world, that already experience climate change dramatic consequences due to excessive exploitation of natural resources and biodiversity loss.

Green Public Procurement means that contracting authorities take into account environmental elements when procuring goods, services or works at all stages of their projects and within the entire life-cycle of procured goods.

In this respect, The Ministry of Environment (ME) has financed the project entitled “Market Survey on the Romanian Products and Services Meeting the Green Criteria”, which has been performed by AEA Mediu Consulting SRL (the Romanian subsidiary of AEA Technology plc), together with AEA Technology plc.

The project had the following outcomes:
- A report - “Main Criteria for Green Services and Products” - for 9 categories of products and services.
- Promotion of the project and GPP (National Action Plan for Green Public Procurement), including the construction of a dedicated web site: www.achizitiiecologice.ro, under the ownership of ME.
- A public database that can be accessed at the address http://www.achizitiiecologice.ro/gpp that includes the green products and services available on the Romanian market, as well as manufacturers and traders thereof, classified on the following categories: cleaning products and services; construction materials; lighting equipment; food and drink; furniture; IT equipment; printing paper; buses and wash services for buses; vehicles and vehicle consumables.
- A report that includes the description of the end-users’ satisfaction degree, the advantages and the behavior of the green products and services in the market. These were developed based on various market research activities.
- A comparative study EU – Romania regarding the public procurement conditions. The reports have provided evidence in support for the established criteria and green public procurement targets proposed by National Action Plan on Green Public Procurement.
- A presentation of policies and initiatives existing in the countries with well-established institutions and tradition in the field; identification of the most relevant initiatives to the Romanian situation; review of the methods to introduce such policies and measures in Romania.

The project focused on the following issues:
- To contribute at ensuring compliance with the European Directives on sustainable development;
- To follow the European Commission recommendation to increase the level of green public procurement in all Member States;
- To finalise the National Action Plan on Green Public Procurement, that sets targets and outlines the concrete measures to implement this policy;
- To stimulate the production of more sustainable goods and services and to draw new environmental technologies into the marketplace that, in turn, have the potential to strengthen the competitiveness of European industry.

The project beneficiaries are the public authorities, the producers and distributors of green products and services, as well as the general public interested in green procurement.

The client - ME – appreciated that the project was successfully accomplished, meeting the requirements in time.

The results of the project were officially presented during the National Conference “Practices and Experiences in Environment Protection” - Arad, 26-28 November 2008, Section “Towards Sustainable Patterns of Consumption and Production”.