About 80 participants including governmental officials in charge of public procurement, experts, representatives from businesses, and NGOs from China, Japan, Korea, Finland, and Germany attended the “EcoProcura China 2015: Green Public Procurement”, a sub-forum held during the Eco-Forum Global Annual Conference in Guiyang on 28 June.

EcoProcura China is the first China-focused program organized by the ICLEI East Asia Secretariat and was chaired by Shu Zhu, Regional Director and China Representative of ICLEI East Asia. The first EcoProcura China conference was held in Beijing last year. This year, the meeting was hosted by Guizhou Province and was jointly organized by program partners including China Business Council for Sustainable Development (CBCSD), China Environmental United Certification Center (CEC), Eco-forum Global (EFG), Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI) and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).

 

 

EcoProcura China 2015: Opening and Keynote Speeches

Monika Zimmermann, Deputy Director of the ICLEI World Secretariat welcomed participants in the opening ceremony where she stressed the importance of promoting green public procurement (GPP) at the local level. “All public authorities, especially on the local level, shall use their power to purchase goods and services which take environmental and sustainability criteria into account. Thus they can help to change markets towards green products. This is extremely important for China as public authorities have such a huge purchasing capacity,” she said.

Gang Zhai, former Director-General of the Department of Treasury in the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and team leader of the Preparatory Team of China Government Procurement Association presented China’s current status in implementing GPP and its effectiveness. “Public Procurement is an important means for the government to manage its economy and society, as well as promoting the development of an environmental-friendly and resource-efficient society,” he said. He suggested that China’s GPP implementation in the future would follow three directions: strengthening the GPP framework, improving the mechanism for GPP implementation, and engaging the involvement of third parties, which includes strengthening the coordination and communication between relevant government departments and agencies.

 

Gang Zhai, former Director-General of the Department of Treasury in MOF and team leader of the Preparatory Team of China Government Procurement Association presented China’s current status in implementing GPP and its effectiveness. / Photo: ICLEI East Asia

 

Junqing Xi, Vice Director of Environmental Development Center under the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MOEP) China introduced how China implements GPP through environmental labeling. According to Xi, two documents issued jointly by MOE and MOF, namely the “Opinions on Implementing Government Procurement of Environmental Labeling Products” and “The list of Government Procurement of Environmental Labeling Products, marked the official launch of public procurement of environmental labeled products in China. Since 2007, central and provincial authorities have started to implement the policies, and the year after, it was extended to all public authorities. “The enactment of this policy on public procurement was China’s official step into the era of eco-civilization,” he said.

On 25 April 2015, the State Council released a document named “Opinions on accelerating the construction of eco civilization,” in which it recommends promoting green consumption across the nation. On 22 December 2014, the Ministry of Commerce and Environment Protection released the “Principles and Guidance on Corporate Green Development,” which provides guidance to corporates to develop the concept of green purchasing and formulate their own plans. In addition, two recently released action plans on preventing air quality pollution and water pollution also emphasized efficient use of energy and green consumption as the key to sustainable economic development. Xi added, “GPP is a crucial approach in realizing ecological development. It has a direct impact on the economy and it’s an important means of reducing emissions and energy consumption.”

Mark Hidson, Global Director of ICLEI’s Sustainable Procurement Center introduced the concept of GPP and ICLEI’s experience and activities in this area. He said, “GPP can stimulate the economy and it can create jobs. It is about creating market opportunities by adapting current technologies or developing new energy efficient and low carbon energy technologies and solutions. GPP is essential if we are to meet the challenges cities face today such as climate change, increasing populations, changing infrastructure, and providing better transport systems, and energy-efficient buildings. It is not about developing a new procurement system it is about thinking and adapting how we currently spend public money.” He also expressed his expectation to have closer cooperation with Chinese local governments in the future, “ICLEI has over 20 years of experience in this field. We believe promoting GPP in China is a very important part of sharing our international experience.”

Farid Yaker, Sustainable Public Procurement Officer from the UNEP introduced the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns (10YFP on SPP). Launched in April 2014 during the 10th meeting of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, the 10YFP on SPP was originally known as the Sustainable Public Procurement Initiative (SPPI). The program’s objective is to develop and promote sustainable consumption and production at the national and regional levels by establishing a regional network. To date, 81 countries, three international organizations, and 6 NGOs have already joined the program. Besides the 10YFP, Yaker also introduced other sustainable public procurement activities organized by the UNEP, such as the ASEAN+3 Green Public Procurement and Ecolabelling Network.

 

GPP Procedures and Policies

Bonghee Son, Strategy Manager of ICLEI East Asia led the panel discussion on GPP procedures and policies. Speaking from the policy, legal and business perspectives, panelists explored how GPP could be more effectively promoted at the local level.

Speaking from the business’s perspective, Qi Zhai, Deputy Secretary General of CBCSD, believes that green procurement and the reduction of energy consumption and emissions should be better integrated and coordinated. He also emphasized the need to promote GPP in a manner that fits the Chinese context. “In China, there are more than 100 central government directly owned companies, hundreds of state or provincial owned companies, and tens of millions of registered SMEs. Therefore, we need to manage GPP with different strategies, according to sectors, scales, as well as other conditions,” he said.

Representing the third party, Xiaodan Zhang, General Manager of CEC, shared her experience on GPP at CEC, a nationally accredited and authorized agency by the central government. “I greatly appreciate the relevant government departments as well as international organizations for their support of China Environment Labeling Government Procurement. Based on the international experience we learned, we will pay more efforts in green supply chain management, low carbon products, and authorization service, so as to better serve and implement green public procurement policies set at the national level,” she said.

Zhaolun Sun, Director of Shanghai Public Procurement Center, explained the work of the public procurement center at the local level. As an implementing agency, the center aims at saving energy and reducing emissions through policies and plans such as a financial budget and procurement list released by the Shanghai government and published by the MOEP. For commodities not listed in the procurement list, the center invites experts to conduct an assessment. “In my view, there’re two main aspects in public procurement, one is to formulate and implement policies, the second is to better manage and reuse resources,” he said.

 

Zhaolun Sun, Director of Shanghai Public Procurement Center, explained the work of the public procurement center at the local level / Photo: ICLEI East Asia

 

Dashui Tan, Deputy Director, Sinopec MEC shared his experience in procurement from the corporate’s perspective. According to Tan, Sinopec regards the safety and environmental friendliness of products as the top priority, followed by the timeliness of supply and cost reduction. To make the purchasing itself go green, the company also conducts electronic purchasing via the internet and promotes green bidding.

Practices of GPP Implementation

Led by Mark Hidson, representatives from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Helsinki, and Korea shared the experience of their cities and countries in implementing GPP during the panel discussion on GPP implementation.

Hengbin Liu, Director of the Government Procurement Center in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region explained the work of the government procurement center in the municipality. Guided by two official documents, namely the “Opinions on implementing government procurement of energy save products” and “Opinions on implementing government procurement of standardized products”, the center’s main duty is to actively promote the concept of green purchasing in its administration area. To make the purchasing process “paper-free”, the center also tries to purchase via the internet.

Perttu Pohjonen, Environmental Expert and Project Manager from Helsinki City shared his city’s experience. He believes besides having a sound legal framework for GPP implementation, the government also needs to set measurable goals and develop strategies to achieve those goals; as well as build a knowledge base to document GPP-related resources. For instance, Helsinki City has set the goal to include environmental criteria in all of its public procurements by 2020.

Hyunju Lee, Associate Research at KEITI explained the case of Korea. According to Lee, all government agencies including local governments in Korea are required to develop and submit voluntary GPP targets and actual GPP records in accordance with the Act on Promotion of Green Products since 2005. For the convenience of public procurers, KEITI has established an online GPP monitoring system in partnership with the Korea Public Procurement Service. They also provide training, operate the GPP help desk, and distribute best practices on GPP implementation.

During the Q&A session, the experts exchanged ideas on how to advance the implementation of GPP at the local level. While Pohjonen stressed the importance of setting standards and targets, Weidong Zhou from The Sustainable Consortium raised the need to strengthen the enforcement of existing rules and to provide incentives to the industries and market.

“Public Procurement is the main drive to achieve sustainable development. It would require both ‘hammer’ and ‘carrot’ to better implement GPP. ‘Hammer’ refers to the government’s role in strengthening the enforcement of regulations and standards and improving the systems of GPP; while ‘carrot’ means the provision of incentives to encourage and motivate the enterprises to better implement green production and innovation. ‘Hammer’ and ‘carrot’ are of equal importance, they are the engines in driving GPP forward,” said Zhou.

 

Hengbin Liu, Director of the Government Procurement Center in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region explained the work of the government procurement center in the municipality. / Photo: ICLEI East Asia

Launch of the Green Public Procurement China Partnership

At the closing session, Alex Zhang, Executive Director of Eco-Forum Global and Member of ICLEI Regional Executive Committee announced the “Green Public Procurement China Partnership” initiative. Launched by ICLEI East Asia along with EFG, CBCSD, CEC, TSC, UNEP, and the 10 YFP on SPP, the partnership aims to provide a platform for Chinese local governments and other related stakeholders to exchange knowledge and experience in implementing GPP. “I think we share the same understanding: enterprises and governments are keys to the successful implementation of GPP. The government will take the lead by using economic leverage and its power in public procurement. It’s based on this common ground that we establish this partnership. We welcome more governments and enterprises to join us into a new area of eco civilization,” said Zhang.