Evaluering af miljøvejledninger til offentlige indkøbere
Summary and conclusions
Advice Analyse A/S has undertaken an evaluation of a series of guides to environmental purchasing in companies. The guides consist of a number of levels, thereby implying that they can be used in a variety of situations and by all kinds of purchasers.
The evaluation has taken place from September 2000 to January 2001 and has included desk research, workshops with purchasers and a quantitative survey among a sample of the subscribers to the guides, resulting in 234 interviews conducted according to pre-defined quotas for different groups among the purchasers.
In short, the evaluation has reached the following conclusions:
 | A large part of the subscribers to the guides do not use them and are unable to remember the guides when asked directly |
| The guides are seen as reliable and objective. Overall, the basic information is seen as correct |
| The layout is seen as very "trustworthy", but is also criticised for not being very clear and lacking illustrations |
| Regarding the text, the readers tend to be more critical. Especially, there is a belief that the text should focus more on the important information and be easier to comprehend |
| The overall satisfaction is moderately positive. The scores on this subject are not outstanding, but are on the other hand far from being critical |
| The possibility of reading the guides on different levels is acknowledged among the readers. However, the tendency to say so has no influence on the perceived relevance of the guides and only a weak influence on overall satisfaction |
| Centralised purchasers and heavy-users of the guides are the main users of the background information, which is very detailed and has a high, technical level |
| There is widespread agreement that it would be acceptable to publish the background information on the Internet only. The agreement is shared between users and non-users of the background information |
| In practice, the guides are mostly aimed at the centralised purchasers. This means, that a large number of purchasers are purchasing without the background advice offered in the guides. |
| In order to increase the use of the guides, we find it important to focus on their "reading economy": What profits are achieved from investing a certain amount of time in reading one of the guides before purchasing an article? |
Focusing on the reading economy of the guides would require a number of significant changes in the guides:
| The different levels of the guides should be differentiated to a larger extent than now |
| The text should be made more readable. Repetitions and unnecessary statements should be avoided at any cost |
| The layout should be changed dramatically, including an increased use of graphic elements such as colour variations and illustrations |
| The distribution of the guides has to be considered seriously. The resources wasted on subscribers who are in reality not interested in the guides can be used better elsewhere |
| The current focus on public purchasers should be reconsidered. We believe that there is a large potential among private purchasers |
| The background information should be seriously considered. It might be the best idea not to publish it at all; less radically it is possible to publish it on the Internet only |