Glossary

Circular procurement is an approach to green purchasing that recognizes the importance of public authorities in supporting the transition toward a circular economy. The European Commission defines circular procurement as “the process by which public authorities purchase works, goods, or services that seek to close material and energy loops within supply chains, reducing or avoiding negative environmental impacts and the generation of waste throughout the entire life cycle”.

Purchasing “green” means choosing a good, service, or work while taking into account the environmental impacts it may have throughout its life cycle—that is, during all phases of the production process, from raw material extraction to waste disposal. The European Commission defines green public procurement as “the approach whereby Public Authorities integrate environmental criteria into all phases of the purchasing process, encouraging the dissemination of environmental technologies and the development of environmentally sound products, through the research for and selection of results and solutions that have the lowest possible impact on the environment throughout the entire life cycle.” The term Green Public Procurement includes all types of tenders and procurement procedures.

Socially responsible procurement consists of purchasing practices that take into account one or more of the following social aspects: employment opportunities, decent working conditions, respect for social and labor rights, social inclusion (including people with disabilities), equal opportunities, accessibility for all, sustainability criteria—including those related to fair trade—and the broad adoption of social responsibility practices. The social considerations to be included must be selected on a case-by-case basis according to the subject matter of the contract, in order to ensure their relevance.

Sustainable procurement is a process through which organizations meet their needs for goods, services, and works by generating value throughout the entire life cycle, in terms of benefits not only for the organization itself but also for society and the economy, while at the same time minimizing environmental impacts. Sustainable public procurement refers to cases in which a public authority aligns economic, environmental, and social objectives within its purchasing strategies.

A methodology that makes it possible to assess costs over the entire life cycle of a product, from production to the disposal phase. The Public Procurement Code and its subsequent amendments specifically address this at Article 96. The contracting authority may use this tool at different stages of the tender process:

• During the comparison of possible solutions to needs and problems, in order to define the optimal response;
• During the comparison of different bids;
• During the monitoring phase and the ex post evaluation of the economic benefits resulting from an environmentally preferable choice compared to a non-environmental one.

It is the methodology that makes it possible to assess the overall environmental impact of a product by taking into account its entire life cycle, starting from activities related to the extraction and processing of raw materials, through manufacturing processes, transport, distribution, use, recycling and reuse, and final disposal. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is regulated by the ISO 14040 series of standards. These standards define the phases that a life cycle assessment study must include, namely: definition of the goal and scope of the analysis (ISO 14041), compilation of an inventory of inputs and outputs for a given system (ISO 14041), assessment of the potential environmental impacts associated with those inputs and outputs (ISO 14042), and finally interpretation of the results (ISO 14043).

Public purchasers who wish to buy green goods, services, or works must use the available information on the environmental impacts that occur throughout their life cycle in order to compare different alternatives and choose those with the lowest environmental impact. The Minimum Environmental Criteria provided under the Italian National Action Plan and the criteria defined within Type I eco-labeling systems are derived from life cycle assessment.

Under the Public Contracts Code, a central purchasing body is a contracting authority that manages tendering procedures on behalf of multiple Italian public administrations. The 2007 Finance Act provided for the establishment of regional central purchasing bodies which, together with Consip S.p.A., form a “network system” aimed at pursuing public spending rationalization plans and achieving synergies in the use of IT tools for the procurement of goods and services.

In general, contracting authorities and awarding entities may acquire works, services, and supplies by making use of central purchasing bodies, including through forms of association or consortium arrangements.

It represents a tool of the Public Administration aimed at simplifying procedures for the acquisition of services and supplies by promoting needs planning, purchases through electronic marketplaces, and — where centralization is not convenient — supporting public bodies, individually or in aggregated form, by providing them with an e-procurement platform to carry out their own purchasing activities.

Certificates or certifications are written declarations that guarantee that professionals, companies, and public organizations comply with the requirements set out by international standards and norms regarding the conformity of products, services, processes, systems, and individuals. They are issued by accredited third-party bodies in accordance with ISO/IEC 17065 (for products, processes, and services), ISO/IEC 17021-1 (for management systems), and ISO/IEC 17024 (for persons).

They are divided into:

• Management system certificates (assessment of organizations’ conformity with standards such as ISO 14001, ISO 9000, etc.);
• Product and service certificates (conformity assessment according to ISO 14024 – Type I; ISO 14025 – Type III Environmental Product Declarations);
• Professional competence certificates.

The life cycle refers to the various stages through which a product’s life develops, from the extraction of raw materials to its final disposal. The European directive on public procurement defines the life cycle as the set of “consecutive and/or interconnected stages, including the research and development to be carried out, production, trade and the related conditions, transport, use and maintenance, of the life of the product, work, or service provision, from the acquisition of raw materials or the generation of resources through to disposal, dismantling, and the end of the service life or use.

This is a phase of the procurement process that concerns the modalities for performing the contract and leaves the contracting authority discretion to identify those specific elements of the required performance that are suitable for meeting environmental or social needs. Contracting authorities may require specific conditions that also concern environmental and social aspects, provided that they are compatible with EU law and with the principles of equal treatment, non-discrimination, transparency, proportionality, and innovation, and that they are specified in the contract notice, or in the invitation to tender in the case of procedures without a notice, or in the tender specifications.

These are the requirements developed by the Italian Ministry of the Environment as part of the implementation process of the National Action Plan for Green Public Procurement (GPP) for the product categories identified as priorities by the Plan. They provide general guidance aimed at steering public bodies toward rationalizing consumption and purchasing, and they set out the actual “environmental considerations” linked to the different phases of procurement procedures (subject matter of the contract, technical specifications, award criteria connected to the most economically advantageous tender, and contract performance conditions).

The Minimum Environmental Criteria (MECs) are adopted by Ministerial Decree and provide the precise indications needed to qualify public procurement as “green procurement”.

A requirement aimed at selecting products or services with environmental performance superior to that ensured by the technical specifications, to which a technical score is assigned for the purpose of contract award according to the best quality–price ratio.

The Environmental Product Declaration, based on the ISO 14025 model, is a voluntary declaration developed by a manufacturer using an LCA-type tool to quantify the environmental impacts caused by its products or services throughout their life cycle.

A public document, written in a concise and clear manner, which a company prepares in order to communicate — once EMAS registration has been obtained — the following elements:
a) site activities;
b) environmental issues;
c) quantitative data on emissions and waste;
d) environmental performance indicators;
e) environmental policy, programs, and management system;
f) deadlines;
g) name of the verifier.

It is a way of designing a product that takes into account, from the very early concept stage, the need to conserve natural resources, optimize energy and material consumption, facilitate disassembly and maintenance, extend product lifespan, minimize waste generation, and increase recycling and/or recovery.

The circular economy is understood as an economic system capable of eliminating its own production of waste and pollutants while at the same time minimizing the use of energy and raw materials, through cyclical material flows similar to those occurring in nature. It is an approach also defined as “cradle to cradle,” borrowing terminology from life cycle thinking, which does not aim merely to reduce waste generation but to act at every stage of the production chain in order to preserve and regenerate natural capital and optimize resource use by circulating them within biological and technical cycles.

In a circular economy, products must be designed from the outset with their end of life in mind, thereby facilitating processes of recovery, component reuse, and material recycling.

The actions of an individual or an organization often have consequences that extend beyond their own boundaries and are therefore not taken into account in the decision-making process. These consequences are referred to as “external effects” or “externalities.” Environmental externalities correspond to the effects that economic activities have on the environment, whose negative impacts are borne by society as a whole rather than by those who generated them.

By purchasing and using goods and services with reduced environmental impact, Public Administrations can lessen the negative effects associated with their operations. Moreover, they encourage companies to invest in reducing negative impacts on society and to internalize costs that would otherwise be passed on to other parties.

This is an approach adopted by the European Union whereby the producer is responsible not only for the transformation phases related to its production process, but also for upstream and downstream stages. The WEEE Directive is an example of the application of this principle (directly linked to the “polluter pays” principle): it establishes that the financing and organization of the collection and treatment of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) are the responsibility of producers of electrical and electronic equipment.

Legislative Decree No. 151 of 25 July 2005, implementing Directives 2002/95/EC and 2003/108/EC on the reduction of the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment and on waste disposal, regulates the take-back and disposal system for such equipment by defining the roles and responsibilities of producers, distributors, and municipalities.

Corporate Social Responsibility is the set of strategies, decisions, procedures, and voluntary actions that enable an organization to pursue its objectives while respecting workers, collaborators, owners, external stakeholders, and the interests of society at local, national, and international levels.

The sustainability of supply chains is one of the current priorities of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and ISO 26000—the most recent and comprehensive standard on Corporate Social Responsibility — recognizes the importance of procurement as a tool for promoting sustainability throughout the entire supply chain. For this reason, green procurement represents a concrete instrument for integrating material CSR aspects into corporate strategies.