Amaroussion procuring green products

The green public procurement policy of Amaroussion (Greece) was the winner of the Green Public Procurement (GPP) Best Practice Award in Greece in 2006.

To stimulate demand for sustainable products and services, the municipality of Amaroussion aligned its public procurement requirements accordingly.

Their efforts began with the revision of criteria for products and establishing a joint procurement consortium for one specific product – recycled paper.

This in fact was the first such action taken by Greek public and semi-public authorities at the local level.  And as a result of this initiative, those local governments in the consortium benefited from economies of scale, resulting in environmental as well as financial advantages.

The whole municipality then adopted environmentally friendly behaviour, and all purchasing decisions now reflect the need for environmentally friendly products.

Sustainable procurement aims to integrate environmental considerations into all stages of the purchasing process with the goal of reducing the impact on human health and the environment. Sustainable procurement is also called eco-procurement, green purchasing, environmentally friendly purchasing and affirmative procurement.  For more information on ICLEI’s Sustainable Procurement efforts, please go to www.iclei.org/index.php?id=796.

Amaroussion is one of 164 local governments in Europe that are currently Members of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability.  For more information on ICLEI and its activities in Europe, please visit www.iclei.org/europe.

Source:  ‘Coordinating Actions to achieve increased benefits from public purchasing – a Greek example’, Procura+ Manual:  A Guide to Cost Effective Sustainable Public Procurement.