In the context of adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, green public procurement has gained much importance for achieving the targets set by SDG 12. Although GPP is a voluntary instrument so far, the strategic UE framework set by the European Green Deal indicates that, at least for specific products with considerable impact on climate change, the contracting authorities shall have to use green criteria in tenders. This research aims to explain the factors influencing the adoption of GPP rules, their implementation, and the actual use percentage in Romania employing questionnaires answered by Romanian contracting authorities, interviews with public procurement officers and documentary analysis of the tender books published between 2018 and 2022 for 4 products and services regulated by the Romanian GPP Guide. This 4 years research’s results indicate that more than half of the respondents have never used the GPP criteria set by the Romanian government or the ones elaborated by the European Commission. The thorough verification of the technical specifications for the products mentioned in the Romanian GPP Guide shows that roughly only 20% of the tenders published between 2018-2022 are green. The main finding is that the principal factor that explains the small percentage of GPP in Romania is the absence of mandatory requirements and targets for GPP. Although the public procurement clerks are slightly aware of the importance of GPP for environmental goals, the lack of training, knowledge, and, furthermost, the absence of a strategic GPP approach of the local governments make achieving the neutrality targets using this environmental policy tool a too slow and laborious process.
Keywords:
Green public procurement, sustainable consumption and production, SDG, GPP, GPP criteria