Sustainable Public Procurement Case Studies

Sustainable Public Procurement Case Studies

Examples of sustainable public procurement by public bodies can be helpful when introducing sustainable considerations into a new procurement project. There is a wealth of international and European Union examples gathered in collections of case studies. There are also some recent Irish examples.

Green Public Procurement Case Studies

The EPA has worked with public sector and semi-state bodies to develop practical case studies to showcase the implementation of GPP in the Irish public sector. These case studies provide an insight into the challenges and opportunities of implementing GPP as well as details of the criteria used.

The EPA will continue this engagement in 2025 and add to the list of case studies. The case studies can be found here.

Some other examples of green public procurement (GPP) in Ireland are provided in:

• Some of the presentations at the OGP's GO Green Conference, for example from Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) and Trinity College Dublin (TCD)

• The presentation about green procurement in University College Cork (UCC) at the OGP'S GO Green Breakfast

• GPP training for supplierspublished by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2022 provides a case study about sustainable procurement of furniture by the Office of Public Works (OPW)

• The best practice guide to support incorporating Level(s), Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Costing, and Indoor Air Quality into the public procurement process produced by the Life Level(s) project includes a best practice case study from the Grangegorman Development Authority (p 38) in procuring design of a new building

Additionally, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland Energy Link, http://energylink.seai.ie, provides access to case studies on energy-related green public procurement, including recent case studies.

National Sustainable Public Procurement case studies and examples

Addressing both environmental considerations and social responsibility in public procurement:

• The European Commission’s GPP Good Practice Issue 118 describes the inclusion of both environmental and social criteria in the Irish Prison Service’s mattress recycling initiative.

• The European Union project BusLeague’s guide on how to use public procurement to incentivise energy efficiency upskilling in the construction industry (see results at end of Outcomes page) includes an example of the use of a training clause in procurement by Dublin City Council (see section 3.2 of the guide), thus addressing a social consideration (upskilling of personnel employed on the contract) at the same time as an environmental consideration (the need for sustainable skills).

Socially responsible public procurement

The OGP in collaboration with the Open Data Unit put in place a Framework Agreement for Technical Services for Open Data and Data Management for public bodies in Ireland. This framework is aimed at offering support and services to the public sector in the area of open data through data management, consultancy services, an open data management platform, and more. Inclusion of environmental and social-value hours were designed to be consistent with the OGP’s approach to seeking to achieve social, economic and environmental goals through public spending. Further information can be found below.

The Department of Rural and Community Development (DRCD) has provided another recent example of including social considerations in a public procurement process. DRCD procured services for designing a process to collect data and conducting data collection for the first Baseline Data Gathering Exercise of Social Enterprise in Ireland. A case study of the incorporation of a social considerations into the procurement process can be found below. Further information about the data collection exercise can be found here.

European Union Sustainable Public Procurement case studies

GPP - A collection of good practices presents a selection of useful green public procurement (GPP) case studies. A wider range of GPP case studies can be found at https://green-business.ec.europa.eu/green-public-procurement/good-practice-library_en. The European Commission’s Green Public Procurement page, https://green-business.ec.europa.eu/green-public-procurement_en, provides an option to sign up for monthly updates regarding GPP. These updates usually include links to new, detailed, GPP case studies.

Making Socially Responsible Procurement Work - 71 Good Practice Cases addresses all aspects of sustainability (social, economic, and environmental) and provides case studies from a range of sectors such as healthcare, ICT, construction, and social services, as well as broader policy or procurement approaches.