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September 7, 2020
Green/Sustainable Public Procurement News Update in Asia Pacific
Public procurement has been recognized as key to the global effort for sustainability, important enough to have a specific target within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, SDG target 12.7: “Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities”
How is looks like in Asia pacific? Four news update related Sustainable/Green public procurement in Asia pacific are as follows:
1. Thailand steps up with new policy to promote environmentally-friendly products and services
[August 6, 2020]-Switch Asia-The recent National Economic and Social Development Plan (NESDP) 2017-2021, which is built on the 9th-11th NESDP and His Majesty's "Sufficiency Economy" philosophy, provides a policy framework for identifying strategic directions concerning Thailand's sustainable social and economic development within a healthy environment. Key strategies in the 12th NESDP stress the following areas:
-Creating a justice society and reducing social inequality;
-Human capacity promotion and development;
-Strengthening Thailand's economic potential sustainability and enhancing Thailand's competitive edge;
-Promoting sustainable consumption and production (SCP);
-Maintaining domestic security and promoting good governance.
The number of green certification schemes for product and services in Thailand established by various organisations has been growing. Some of them are recognised by the government's green procurement programme such as Thai Green Label, Carbon Footprint, Energy saving label, CoolMode, Green Leaf, and Green Hotel. The private sector also has its certification schemes for environmentally-friendly products/material such as SCG Eco-Value, Green for Life, and Green Heart.
Learn more at:Switch Asia website
2. New initiative launched in Indonesia to accelerate shift to Green/ Sustainable Public Procurement
[August 13, 2020]-Switch Asia-Over the past decade, Indonesia has played an active role in mainstreaming Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) both in policies and implementation, accelerating and strengthening its Green/Sustainable Public Procurement (G/SPP) system.
To attain the SCP and G/SPP objectives outlined in the Indonesian National Medium-term Plan and the G/SPP Roadmap, the SWITCH-Asia SCP Facility and GIZ Advance SCP are supporting the Ministry of Environment and Forestry through the project “Enhancing SCP through the implementation of G/SPP and the preparation of a long-term action plan for G/SPP in Indonesia.” A market readiness analysis will be prepared and G/SPP Plans for two pilot sectors, namely, wooden furniture and paper industries, are expected to be developed.
This Project was launched on 24 July 2020 and 25 participants from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the National Procurement Agency (LKPP), the Paper Industry Association, the Furniture Industry Association, SWITCH-Asia Experts, GIZ Advance SCP, and the EU Delegation to Indonesia attended the meeting.
Learn more at：Switch Asia Website
3. Boosting Sustainable and Green Public Procurement
[June26,2020]-Switch Asia- Public agencies around the world have realized that public procurement is not a mere administrative procedure but a powerful instrument that can be leveraged to achieve the sustainability goals of the organization.
This strategic use of public procurement has been recognized as key to the global effort for sustainability, important enough to have a specific target within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, SDG target 12.7: “Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities”.
To address that demand, SWITCH-Asia RPAC has developed the report “Monitoring Implementation and Estimating the Benefits of Sustainable/Green Public Procurement in Northeast and Southeast Asia”. The document has been jointly developed with Ecoinstitut SCCL and presents the approaches of several central governments in the region (i.e. China, Japan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea and Thailand) in order to show that setting up monitoring and evaluating systems for GPP and/or SPP is possible and beneficial.
Hopefully this publication will encourage countries in Asia to improve and/or set up such systems to support their national GPP or SPP policies and the global reporting of SGD indicator 12.7.1. "Number of countries implementing sustainable public procurement policies and action plans".
Learn more at: Switch Asia Website
4. China boosting Sustainable Consumption in times of pandemic
[June17,2020]-Switch Asia-As people become more interested in healthy and environmentally sound products, reliable consumer information tools, such as eco-labelling, will accelerate sustainable consumption and production patterns. Drastic lifestyle changes due to the outbreak, such as increased online food delivery and online shopping with more packaging waste, have forced China to explore how to maintain the ongoing efforts for boosting sustainable consumption using these tools.
The China Environmental United Certification Center (CEC), as a third-party certification organization, developed and conducted remote inspection, in addition to the instruments they usually employ, to ensure that products meet the criteria for eco-labels appropriately and in a timely manner during the pandemic. Once a product is eco-labelled, it is given priority by Chinese government agencies using green public procurement and therefore contributes to foster this kind of public procurement in China.
This is a great example about how we can use the current COVID-19 scenario to “build back better”. But China's extensive efforts to achieve an ecological transition in the production and consumption sectors are not new and have been increasing over the past decade. In fact, green and low-carbon consumption has been incorporated into the philosophy of China's Ecological Civilization as one of the key pathways to green development.
Learn more at:Switsh Asia Website
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