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Miljømæssige og økonomiske konsekvenser af øgede offentlige grønne indkøb

Summary and Conclusions

The environmental and economic consequences of public "green" procurement have been assessed for selected product groups. The assessment shows that the consequences vary between product groups. The largest potential for environmental profits by green procurement seem to be related to products, for which eco-labelling or other kind of identification of green products has not yet been established - e.g. automobiles and cables/wires.

Background and objective

Eco-labels is one of the well established measures to promote the development of environmentally friendly products, and today labelling criteria has been defined and eco-labels have been established for high number of products. This project was initiated to investigate to what extent it is possible to quantify the environmental consequences and the costs related to measures as eco-labels.

As it was not obvious at the time of the initiation of the project, to what extent the relevant data would be available and would allow the planned assessments to be undertaken, an objective of project has also been to test to what extent it would actually be possible to carry out the assessments.

• It is defined, what should be understood as green procurement.
• The volume of public procurement is estimated.
• The potential of increased public green procurement as compared with the routines of today is estimated.
• The economic consequences related to the increased public green procurement are estimated including costs of acquisition as well as costs of operation.
  
• At least one parameter has been identified to be used as indicator of the environmental benefits related to green procurement for the product group in question.
• The potential benefit related to each of the selected parameters has been estimated.

The results of these products groups are summarised in table 2.

For those products groups, for which the assessments were not completed, the reasons were as follows:

Printers, copy machines etc.: It was deemed that the results by and large would equal the results of the product group computers.

Cleaning chemicals: It was in the recognised that the indicators identified could not in reality be used to separate eco-labelled products from products without label.

Textiles and furniture: It was deemed that it was not possible within the product to complete an assessment of these 2 product groups

It is emphasised that the assessments must be regarded as a screening assessment which by certainty will underestimate the total benefits related to eco-labels and green procurement.

Conclusions
It is a general conclusion that the environmental importance of the eco-labels and the labelling criteria in many cases seems to be very high due to that they in reality are determining the environmental standards of the market. Furthermore should be noted the value related to that legislation may build on the experiences gained by the eco-labels.

On the other hand the eco-label seems for some product groups to suffer from that it lacks a sales value wanted by the product manufacturers and suppliers. Interesting is that the eco-label in this context seems to be competing with energy-labels as the manufacturers are focusing on the kind of labelling giving the highest return.

The biggest potential for environmental profits by green procurement seems to the related to products, for which eco-labelling or other kind of identification of green products has not yet been established - e.g. automobiles and cables/wires.

Other project results

The results of the product groups assessed can be summarised as follows:

• Green products may be more costly to acquire, but this will vary between product groups.
• For products consuming energy by operation green procurement will normally lead to energy savings, which again results in economic savings. These savings will frequently - but not always - compensate for the extra costs that may be related to acquisition of green products.
• To a varying extent other profits may be obtained also, as e.g. reduced consumption of hazardous substances. The actual profits will differ between product groups (reference is made to table 2). The following examples on savings for specific product groups illustrate these profits:
  Electrical cables and wires: 50 - 380 tonnes phthalates/year
  Diesel vehicles: 60 tonnes particles to air yearly
  Wall paint-interior: 12 tonnes VOC (volatile organic carbons)/year
  Light sources/1-mounting: 11 kg mercury/year

Due to the existence of eco-labels and other efforts aimed at improving the environmental performance of products as well as general product development significant environmental profits have been obtained in the recent years or are in the process of being obtained within a number of the product groups considered. Attention should be paid to the following examples:

• Refrigerators and freezers - CFC, HFC and other chemical compounds affecting the stratospheric ozone layer or contributing to global warming are by and large eliminated from ordinary refrigerators and freezers for households.
• Printings - the consumption of alcoholic solvents and washing chemicals by the manufacture of printings has been considerably reduced.
• Computers - traditional CRT-monitors, which contain lead glass and have significant energy consumption, are currently in the process of being eliminated from the market and replaced by LCD and other flat screen monitors. This development results in significant savings regarding consumption of lead and energy. The same process is ongoing regarding televisions.
• Computers, refrigerators, freezers, light sources - the use of lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium(6), and the brominated flame retardants PBB and PBDE shall cease from 1. July 2006 in all electrical and electronic equipment for household purposes sold in EU as a consequence of the EU RoHS directive.

This development will naturally reduce the profits that may be obtained in the future by requiring green procurement with respect to the product groups in question.

As illustrated by the factual project results stated above, it is possible to quantify the environmental consequences and the costs related to measures as eco-labels. However, it may be necessary in the process to make estimates, which may be subject to substantial uncertainty.

The biggest effort and uncertainty is typically linked to the process of estimating procurement volumes. On the other hand it is normally relatively simple to obtain economic data. Information on environmental parameters may also be difficult problematic to achieve, as it cannot be expected that suppliers and manufacturers will invest significant effort in investigating issues, it they do not benefit themselves from these investigations.

Table 2. Extra costs and environmental consequences related to green procurement in the public sector in Denmark

1. Figures in brackets state the yearly profit, when all products are replaced to green products. The figure before the bracket states the profit related to those products which are replaced yearly.

2. No profits regarding other heavy metals or PBB or PBDE. Some benefit on voice, which however cannot be quantified.

3. All heat transmissions chemicals and foaming agents which may have an impact on the stratospheric ozone layer or contributes to global warming have by and large been replaced.

4. Government taxes not included. The calculations deals with passenger cars only.

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Version 1.0 Januar 2008, © Miljøstyrelsen.