Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Mr Phil Hogan TD has published a draft issue of the National Action Plan on Green Public Procurement for public consultation which is available now at environ.ie.
The Action plan intends to highlight existing best-practice procurement as an example to procurers of similar products and services across the public sector and outlines what further improvements could be made that would boost the percentage of GPP in Ireland to the most ambitious level possible.
The plan also outlines seven priority product groups for which the public sector should seek to “green” their tendering processes on a national basis. The groups are construction, energy, food and catering services, transport, cleaning products and services, paper, uniforms and other textiles.
The Minister stated that the Action Plan will apply to all personnel involved in procurement across the Public Sector. It will also be of major interest to their partners in the business community, as well as to other stakeholders in the academic community, NGOs, and other parts of civil society.
“Stakeholder buy-in will be critical” the Minister added and that “I look forward to finalising the process and publishing Ireland’s first GPP Action Plan later this year”.