The European Commission (EC) is in the process of revising Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria for the following product groups: road construction, office buildings, textiles, and cleaning services. The new criteria proposals have been developed at the request of the Directorate General of the Environment, by the EC’s Joint Research Centre’s (JRC) Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS).

Stakeholders are invited to register their interest to take part in both the technical and public procurement aspects of the consultations. The proposals for road construction are open for consultation until 22 February, office buildings and textiles until 27 February, and cleaning services until 13 March.

The revised proposals for office buildings are developed from initial studies and proposals published during 2011 – 2012. They incorporate new technical evidence and are accompanied by new draft guidance on procurement best practice. Importantly, the proposals also seek to reflect the priorities set out in the EU's recent communications Towards a Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency Opportunities in the Building Sector which outline future policy initiatives to address resource efficiency. The aim of the textiles consultation is to determine if the existing criteria are still relevant and to what extent they should be revised, restructured or even removed in light of leading procurement practices and the revised European Union Ecolabel criteria published in June 2014.

For more information, visit the EC Green Public Procurement website.