The GPPnet methodology as an instrument for the achievement of sustainability objectives.

The GPPnet methodology represents an alternative to Green Public Procurement meant only as ‘green purchase’ per se. The basic idea is in fact to use GPP not only as a practice in public procurement but rather as a tool for the implementation of strategies and policies for sustainable development. The advantages of the GPPnet methodology are:

• Integration of environmental considerations into other sector policie
• Immediate visibility (and hence good example as well) towards citizens, local authorities’ employees and enterprises
• Operational instrument for the achievement of objectives established within other policies and strategies of the authority: e.g. environmental improvement objectives defined by the Local Agenda 21 Action Plan or by the EMAS Environmental Programme, objectives/targets included in other plans of the Authority (Energy Plan, Urban Traffic Plan and so on).

The phases of GPPNet:

1) Analysis of the activities of the local authority:
what goods are bought
what services are supplied
what services are entrusted to others
state of art in terms of purchasing of ‘green’ goods/services
This phase provides the necessary information for the implementation of the following phases and defines the position of the Local Authority in terms of green procurement before the adoption of an extended GPP strategy, thus enabling to monitor future progress.

2) Identification of environmental impacts of each good/service
By highlighting the environmental impacts of each good/service, environmental impacts can be linked to the activities of different sectors/departments of the local authority. Opportunities for integrating environmental considerations within sector strategies are thus identified.

3) Building of a hierarchy of environmental impacts of goods/services by environmental aspect
On one side, the hierarchy of impacts makes the use of GPP immediate for the achievement of objectives included in other programmatic documents of the local authority.
On the other side, a Local Authority that has not yet declared its environmental improvement objectives, can establish its intervention priorities on the base of the hierarchy of environmental impacts of goods/services.

4) Individuation of ecological criteria to be inserted into public calls for tender and contracts
In this phase the involvement of suppliers is fundamental to:
verify products’ availability on the market
meet the requirements of enterprises that have to adapt their production methods or products to the requests of the Local Authority
establish temporal targets/objectives for GPP implementation

5) GPP implementation
The ecological criteria identified are inserted in the calls for tender and service contracts of the Local Authority.
A support tool in this phase is the GPP Handbook, that contains examples of ecological criteria for all goods and services purchased and supplied by the Local Authority and the operational instructions for the inclusion of ecological criteria in a call for tender.

6) Training, information, dissemination
This phase is of support to all the others.
Training activities have the Local Authority’s personnel as a target (purchasers, sector managers).
The information is directed to enterprises that have to be enabled to satisfy public demand for low environmental impact goods and services.
Dissemination addresses citizens that have to be informed about the Local Authority’s best practices.