GPPnet is a project of the Provincial Administration of Cremona, co-financed by the European Commission under the Life Environment programme 2001.

Green public procurement (GPP) is a means to make public purchases of goods and services ‘green’ by applying environmental criteria to procurement procedures of Local Authorities and the Public Administration.

The public procurement sector represents on average 12% of the GDP of the European Union, but reaches a rate of 17% in Italy and even 19% in certain Member States such as France: those numbers highlight the great significance of the sector. The adoption of GPP on a wide scale could modify the purchasing behaviour of subjects that purchase goods and services for about 1/5 of the national total.

GPP is one of the main tools that local authorities and the Public Administration (PA) have at disposal to implement sustainable development strategies aimed at reducing environmental impacts of production and consumption processes, through a more responsible management of natural resources and waste, one of the priority sectors of the European Strategy for Sustainable Development approved by the European Council in Goteborg in June 2001.