Life Cycle Assessment methods in Public Procurement
Umweltbundesamt (Environment Agency Austria) study on behalf of the European Commission highlights how public procurement can benefit from implementing environmental footprint practices
Experts of the Umweltbundesamt, the Environment Agency Austria, evaluated existing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) practices in nine countries of the European Economic Area. In addition, they identified best practice examples for integrating LCA and EF criteria in their public procurement approaches. The results show that LCA-based instruments and criteria as well as their application widely vary between different business sectors. While LCA-based instruments work well in the planning of tender processes, the application of them is very complex. Given these facts, the study recommends future research to gain more knowledge and support LCA in public procurement.
In the EU, public procurement is regulated by the directives 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU. They encourage public procurers to use environmental criteria in their tenders. The European Commission provides such green criteria for different product groups, some of them including LCA. However, LCA is not harmonised across the Member States. Goal of the study therefore was to identify and assess LCA-based measures put in place by the examined countries. Therefore, an analysis of relevant regulations, literature and an empirical approach that integrated interviews with experts on Green Public Procurement were carried out. The study was conducted jointly with experts from the IFZ (Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture) and Heid und Partner Rechtsanwälte GmbH. Support came from PRé Consultants, 2.0-LCA Consultants and RISE IVF AB.
