UNEP historical involvement in SPP
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has been active in the promotion of Sustainable Public Procurement at national, regional and global levels since 2005.
2009-2012: Development of a methodology to develop and implement SPP policies
UNEP tested in 7 countries (Tunisia, Lebanon, Costa Rica, Colombia, Uruguay, Chile, Mauritius) a methodology developed by the Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable Public Procurement in the framework of the EU funded “Capacity building for Sustainable Public Procurement” project.
A revised methodology was developed in 2012, based on lessons learned during the pilot phase. The revised methodology became the UNEP SPP Implementation Guidelines, and started to be at the core of several projects that followed.
New SPP Implementation Guidelines are to be published in 2021, so as to reflect the progress made in terms of methodological approaches in recent years, and to include the latest SPP concepts and trends.
2013-2017: Rolling out the SPP methodology
From 2013 to 2017, 12 countries (Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Mauritius, Mongolia, Vietnam, Moroco, Cote d’Ivoire), were supported in their efforts to develop and implement SPP policies through the EU-funded project: “Stimulating the demand and supply of sustainable products through Sustainable Public Procurement and Ecolabelling” (SPPEL). Using the SPP implementation guidelines, the project provided capacity building and advisory services for the combined implementation of SPP and ecolabelling in 13 countries.
The EU-funded “Greening Economies in European Union’s Eastern Neighbourhood” (“EaP Green”) project (2013-2017) allowed for the UNEP SPP Approach to be successfully rolled out in Ukraine and Moldova : SPP plans were developed and in the process of being implemented over the past several years.
UN Environment also published two Global SPP Reviews (2013, 2017) to examine the state of sustainable public procurement worldwide, and the challenges faced in SPP implementation. In 2017, a separate publication included additional fact sheets showcasing the status of SPP implementation in 40 countries.
Outputs of all past projects can be found here and more details on our 2009-2017 activities here.
UNEP’s current involvement in on-going projects
Below is a short introduction to projects in which UNEP is actively involved to promote the advancement of Sustainable Public Procurement:
Global action
Data collection for 2020 reporting on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.7.1 Indicator:
UNEP, as custodian to SDG 12.7.1 indicator, is collecting contributions and data from national and sub-national governments.
One Planet Programme on Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP)
UNEP supported the establishment of the One Planet SPP programme in 2014, and has been co-leading the programme since then.
The One Planet Programme on Sustainable Public Procurement (formerly known as 10YFP SPP Programme), is a global multi-stakeholder platform of 130+ partners which supports the implementation of SPP around the world. The Programme builds synergies between various partners to accelerate the shift to SPP and achieve the SDG target on SPP. The One Planet platform provides a wealth of resources and tools (SPP action plans, cases studies and other publications) focusing on SPP implementation and policy-making.
UNEP leads the SPP Monitoring Interest Group and a working group dedicated to supporting Senegal on SPP implementation.
Updating Sustainable Public Procurement Guidelines and country factsheets
New SPP Implementation Guidelines reflecting the progress made in terms of methodological approaches in recent years and including the latest SPP concepts and trends will be published in 2021 to provide an improved and actualized guidance on setting up SPP policies and action plans to support SPP implementation. An original copy of UNEP Implementation Guidelines published in 2012 is available here.
Country factsheets initially published as a supplement to the 2017 Global Review of SPP will also be updated in 2021 to reflect the progress made by national governments in the implementation of SPP.
International directory of SPP criteria
UNEP developed a database of SPP criteria around the world, download the document to find SPP criteria for a variety of products in the European Union, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA.
Promotion of regional cooperation in the field of Sustainable or Green Public Procurement
Asia Pacific Green Public Procurement (GPP) Network (2020-2022)
This project, funded by KEITI (Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute), aims at enhancing GPP knowledge-sharing and related networking in the Asia Pacific region.
Compras Sostenibles: a platform dedicated to SPP implementation in Latin America
Compras Sostenibles, an online platftorm providing SPP-related resources in Spanish and English focusing on SPP implementation in Latin America, was developed in 2017 (as part of the 2013-2017 “Stimulating the demand and supply of sustainable products through Sustainable Public Procurement and Ecolabelling” project).
Country-level capacity-building and policy-making support
- “Enhancing sustainable public procurement for regional transition to inclusive green economy in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA): in the framework of this UNDA funded project, UNEP supports SPP implementation in Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan
- EU4Environment project (2019-2022): UNEP is one of the 5 implementing partners of this EU funded programme. We assist Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia in on SPP policy development, SPP implementation and capacity building.
- Through PAGE funding, UNEP also supports Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan on SPP policy development.
- Thanks to the support of Norway and in partnership with the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, UNEP assists in Grenada, Antigua y Barbuda and Dominica in the implementation of SPP
- UNEP also supports SPP implementation in India through our Country Office and with the financial support of Norway.
UNEP has provided support to a large number of national governments in the past, whose outputs can be found here.
The list of our publications can be found here.
