Green procurement means taking environmental impact and durability into account when purchasing goods and services, e.g. when investing in or purchasing furniture, IT equipment, cloud solutions, cleaning products and cleaning services. When planning an event, you can make green choices and purchases when choosing suppliers, facilities and other services.
Be clear about the purpose and need for the purchase. Examine whether it is really necessary to buy new this time and whether you can achieve the same purpose in other ways, e.g. through recycling. Is there material left over from a previous event you can use, e.g. pens and pop-up displays? Can you rent, borrow or lease equipment
If you repeatedly rent the same things, e.g. equipment for interpreting or for making events more accessible, work out whether it would be more sustainable, economically viable and affordable to invest in permanent solutions at the venue.
Be clear about the organisation’s ambitions and set targets for objectives like CO2 reduction and environmental impact. Check if your organisation has a procurement policy that sets requirements for the climate, environment and energy, or for ecolabelling, such as the Swan or other ecolabels.
Assess whether the purchase is of a scale and volume that makes it relevant to impose green requirements on the seller.
Use the total cost of ownership (TCO) to evaluate quotes because it covers the lifetime of a product or service – from purchase to maintenance, support, upgrades, energy and disposal.
Assess whether it is appropriate to impose transport requirements on the supplier. (See the “Transport” section).
Set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for green procurement to monitor and reduce climate and environmental footprint. This involves the continuous collection of data and monitoring of progress towards the organisation's main goals.