The innovative green furniture procurement evaluation system developed by Tianjin Binhai New District with the support of ICLEI in 2018 wins the local government the highest award in public procurement in China.

Ranked highly among all local authorities, the Binhai Government Procurement Center is recognized for its bold attempt to assess and weigh the environmental performance of bidding products with a full life cycle perspective and on an unprecedented scale. Particularly worth mentioning that Binhai is also the only public authority that won the 2018 China Government Procurement Award for its endeavors in green procurement. In other words, all other counterparts are recognized for efforts in non-environmental aspects such as improved trenchancy, E-services, budget-saving, etc.

Hosted by the China Government Procurement Journal – the only media to issue information on government procurement by the Ministry of Finance of the country, the China Government Procurement Award is the highest honor public authorities of all levels can get in China for public procurement activities.

 

Dewen Cheng, Director of Binhai Procurement Center (first line, third from the left) at CGPN Ceremony on 20th December 2018, Beijing

 

2018 China Government Procurement “Innovation of the Year” Award Plate for Binhai

 

In 2017, the Binhai Government Procurement Center pledged to advance green public procurement (GPP) by establishing a local green evaluation system in accordance with the Tianjin Municipal Government Decrees on the green supply chain and GPP. To this end, the Binhai Government Procurement Center proactively reached out to the international cooperation platform and joined the 10YFP SPP Working Group 1A “GPP Implementation and Impact Monitoring” project as one of the East Asian pilot local governments, along with Suwon (Korea), Guiyang, Shenzhen Guangming District, Urumqi Economic and Technological Development Zone, and Tianjin Jizhou District (China).

Under the project, ICLEI worked closely with the Binhai Government Procurement Center and domestic partners, identified the furniture sector as the entry point to pilot the green procurement evaluation scheme, and formulated a whole set of specifications, award criteria, and verification methods covering phases of raw materials extraction, design, manufacturing, assembling transport, and end of life treatment. The evaluation system accounts for 15% out of 100% of overall evaluation scoring in total.

In June 2018, the Binhai Government Procurement Center applied the criteria on two tenders for procuring 6,160 sets of school desks and chairs for public campuses. From 2019 onwards, Binhai is looking into issuing a local document to further amplify its adoption throughout the district.