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Offentlige grønne indkøb Summary and conclusions
Questionnaires have been sent to 275 municipalities, 14 counties, 20 departments and 100 government institutions. The survey was carried out mid 2000. The response rate is satisfactory, 92% of the counties, 77% of the municipalities and 82% of the government institutions having replied. The survey gives an up-to-the minute account of the efforts made by counties and municipalities in respect of green procurement, but it does not say anything about the future development. Consequently, the survey cannot stand alone if you wish to evaluate the development in public green procurement. Documentation for the development in public green procurement is not achieved until the survey has been carried out a couple of times and it has been possible to evaluate the development. The survey includes questions concerning the general/organisational measures available for public entities in their efforts to ensure green procurement, including whether the entity has a procurement policy, whether it has been communicated to underlying departments and institutions, and whether steps have been taken to follow up on the policy. The survey also includes questions concerning the pattern of behaviour seen in the individual procurement situation, including the intensions underlying the procurement as well as the tools applied to obtain green knowledge of goods and services. The public entities have also been asked to evaluate the extent of green procurement and the status of implementing the target areas of the Coordination Group. Finally, the survey contains questions concerning e-business, including information about the current status, future plans and intensions. E-business is an interesting area which may help bring about systematic documentation of green procurement in the future. General measures to promote green procurementMore than half of the municipalities have replied that they are about to prepare a written green procurement policy or that they already have such a policy. This also applies to two out of three government entities and eleven out of thirteen counties. The majority of the entities which have a green procurement policy have communicated this to the underlying departments and institutions or are about to do so. A little more than half of the entities and institutions asked are about to or have followed up on the compliance by the underlying departments and institutions with the green procurement policy. In the public entities asked, only a minority is in the process of preparing action plans, and the number of action plans is less than the number of purchase policies (this represents an important issue as action plans usually indicate how the policy is to be implemented in practice). Between 30% and 50% of those having a green procurement policy/action plan have replied that they are in the process of or have decided to revise the action plan/green procurement policy. A significant part of the public procurement is made without prior tenders. Different employees, often without any professional procurement competence, procure goods on an ad hoc basis. It is therefore important to have clear guidelines for procurement. Comparatively few of the entities asked have guidelines for green procurement which is not made under an agreement. One way of focusing on the area is to appoint a responsible person or coordinator for green procurement, and in this way the entity can simultaneously promote green procurement. Almost half of the counties and government entities have replied that they have appointed a responsible person/coordinator for the green procurement policy whereas this is only the case of one third of the municipalities. Pattern of behaviour in relation to procurement of goods and servicesOn the whole, the majority of the public entities (approx. two thirds) state that they weight the environment equally with quality, price and service. This attitude should result in specific requirements being made with regard to the environment in connection with procurement of goods and services. The majority respond that they often, almost always or always make green requirements in connection with procurement of goods. When considering services, the majority answer that they sometimes, often or almost always make green requirements in connection with procurement. So according to the survey, less requirements are made in connection with procurement of services than in connection with procurement of goods. The survey also suggests that when the public entities are to obtain knowledge of environmental matters concerning goods, they first of all use the approved energy and ecolabels and second the information from the supplier. Very few use their own environmental experts (most public entities do not have any such experts). More than half of the respondents use the guidelines/statements from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency sometimes or often. A little more than 50% of the counties and municipalities sometimes or often cooperate with other public entities in obtaining environmental knowledge. Evaluation of procurementThe public entities are also asked to evaluate the extent of their green procurement. This evaluation provides an indication of the level of green procurement, however it is not a precise measurement for public green procurement, as this kind of knowledge is generally not available in advance in the public entities and could not be obtained within the limits of this questionnaire survey. A large part of the responses to this question (15-25%) fall under "N/A". The overall picture shows that the majority of the responses fall into the interval of 0-40% green procurement, except from the State where there are slightly more responses which fall above 40% than below 40%. Implementation of the Coordination group's target areasThe parties behind the agreement recommend six target areas which should be given a high priority in future. The six recommended target areas are: cleaning materials, cleaning services, furniture, computer equipment, washing detergents and washing services. The survey gives the impression that the majority of these target areas have already been or are in the process of being implemented as target areas with respect to public green procurement. E-businessWhen it comes to E-business, most of the public entities have yet to implement this tool. 60-80% responded that they have not included E-business in next year's budget, and only 20-30% responded that they have prepared a strategy/an action plan regarding E-business. However, the picture may quickly change as this area is rapidly changing. 3 The Coordination Group consists of representatives of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy, the National Association of local Authorities in Denmark, the Association of County Councils in Denmark, the Municipality of Frederiksberg and the Municipality of Copenhagen |