Karim Elsarha: Green procurement in contracting with the government

In 2016, the Ministry of the Environment launched the “Promoting Sustainable Public Procurement in Egypt” and the “reducing consumption of Plastic Bags” project, in the presence of Engineer Ahmad Abu Al-Saoud, Executive Chairman of the Environmental Affairs Authority, and Dr. Eyad Abu-Mughli, Director and Representative of the United Nations Environment Program in West Asia. Dr. Hossam Allam, Regional Director of the Sustainable growth Program of the Center for Environment and Development for the Arab region and Europe (Cedare), is among the policies for integrating the green economy and adopting sustainable consumption and production policies to achieve sustainable development.

This cooperation is considered a new addition to the green initiatives aiming at promoting sustainable development and the partnership of the Ministry, the United Nations Environment Program, and Cedare to bring about a “transformation” to the green economy and integrate sustainable consumption and production policies into the state’s plans and programs. Following up on the efforts of the regional Switch Med project, which is managed by the economic sector of the United Nations Environment Program in partnership with the regional offices, which contributed to the preparation of the national plan for sustainable consumption and production in Egypt and was launched in April 2016 with funding from the European Union, the four priorities were agriculture, energy, water, and waste management.

The project “promoting sustainable and green public procurement in Egypt” aims at setting policies to create demand for green products and clean technologies in public and government institutions and presenting the concept of sustainable procurement to decision-makers to include it within policies by introducing the principle of sustainable procurement and creating a market for sustainable goods and services in Egypt. Review the best international experience in this area, study how to benefit from it at the national level, and prepare an electronic guide for training and capacity-building of practitioners.

The project is considered one of the most important, best, and most quick projects to stimulate producers and manufacturers of green goods and services in the State, as it will give them the chance to obtain the priority of contracting with government bodies and resume the development of environment-friendly products, based on the government green procurement policy, this is a powerful tool through which the government sector can participate in leading the shift toward green products and commodities to encourage the use of environment-friendly commodities, which is why environmental standards should be set in the purchase lists related to a set of environment-friendly products. These products compete economically with their traditional counterparts to lead the economic shift of the labor market toward green products and commodities.

Regulation of procurement frameworks ensures that government leadership in sustainable policy adoption is demonstrated, by demonstrating the government’s commitment to green purchases to lead the transition to a green economy, and by contributing green goods and services to mitigating adverse effects on the environment, including climate change, energy and water depletion, and reducing biological pollution.

This also reduces costs and financial burdens, and although some eco-friendly products have a higher capital value, when comparing total lifecycle costs, green products are less expensive than alternative products, and some eco-friendly products are less expensive than purchase. Such as paper, literature, lighting equipment, and water-saving tools, to enable the use of the consumer power of the public sector to develop green product markets, this means that these products will be given priority when purchasing, and will also contribute to opening new markets for them in terms of production and marketing, and we aim at promoting them in markets, which creates a state of response with the private sector by opening additional markets, after which they will gradually acquire higher rates in marketing.

The project was piloted in seven countries: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Lebanon, Mauritius, Tunisia, and Uruguay. Since then, the list of countries adopting this newly designed approach to development has increased, adding more advanced and industrialized countries to be used as case studies to measure the efficiency and benefits of implementing sustainable public procurement.

In Brazil, the project included recycled paper, and management services were redesigned in Costa Rica. Ink cartridges for laser printers were the main objective in France, Hong Kong, and China to improve traffic through updated modifications of LED traffic signals. Organic food for school children was the focus in Italy and sustainable construction focus is in England.

Sustainable procurement is not an exercise in high-income countries alone. For example, Papua New Guinea, Ecuador, and Brazil have developed strategies to provide economic facilities for selected industries, while addressing some of the pillars of sustainability in their procurement practices.

The benefits associated with green procurement are not limited to environmental impact only but can include everything from social and health benefits to economic and political benefits. Some examples of the benefits achieved by the European authorities through GPP: The city of Vienna saved €44.4 million and more than 100,000 tons of CO2 between 2004 and 2007.

Therefore, I suggest applying the green purchasing policy in cooperation between the government and private sectors by getting priority to contracting with government bodies for companies producing green and environment-friendly commodities, which may be recycled after they are consumed.

Pursuing a win-win strategy policy which means that the rules governing these procedures should be applied to the suppliers to be allowed to return the products to the suppliers after they are consumed so that they can be used as raw products for the suppliers’ factories to be remanufactured and resold as a finished product, and priority of sale should be given to the bodies from which the products are returned at binding discount rates In case of no need, they are sold to other parties at the market selling price of these products.