Green Public Procurement of Republic of Korea

Green public procurement in Korea was introduced under the Act on Development and Support of Environmental Technology of 1994. The government agencies – i.e. central and local governments and public organizations were recommended to preferentially purchase products awarded the Korea Eco-label or Good Recycled Mark. The green public procurement took a more concrete form when the government introduced an Act on Promotion of Purchase of Green Products in 2005. The government agencies are obliged by the Act to submit an implementation plan on green purchase of the year and the performance records of the previous year to the Ministry of Environment (MoE) at the beginning of each year. This Act was an initiative of the Ministry of Environment (MoE), with the objective to “prevent wasteful use of resources and environmental pollution, thereby contributing to sustainable developments by promoting the purchase of green products”. No quantitative target is set at the national level. Each institution is required to set a voluntary target for green purchases and submit it with a GPP implementation plan. According to Article 15 (Delegation or Entrustment of Authority) of the Enforcement Decree of the Act on Promotion of Purchase of Green Products, target public institutions are obliged to prepare and submit to KEITI a plan and performance report for green purchases. The plan and records include both the total purchase amount and the amount of green purchases in the corresponding year. The plan shall be submitted within two months from the start of the fiscal year while the performance report shall be compiled and submitted to KEITI within three months from the end of the fiscal year. The submitted plan is made public on the website of each institution after approval from KEITI. The institution shall then report to KEITI if it has published the plan. Providing Fiscal Incentives The level of green procurement is reflected as one of the indicators to evaluate the annual performance of public institutions and local governments, thereby affecting the annual performance bonus received by public organizations at the end of each fiscal year. The weighting factor of the GPP varies according to the type of organizations. Sharing and Disseminating Best Practices The KEITI annually holds workshops in order to exchange good practices, as well as to discuss with procurers on how to improve the GPP system. During the workshop, presentation contests for best practices are held, where the best performing institutions and relevant officials are awarded with commendations, monetary prizes and overseas training opportunities. Outstanding practices for the GPP are collected and distributed via best practice compendium. Providing Training and Guidelines The KEITI produces the guidelines for the GPP in October every year and upload it on the GPIP (http://gd.greenproduct.go.kr) to make it available online for procurers. A nationwide training is offered to over 6,000 public officials in public institutions from November to December every year, in consideration of the biannual changes of responsible officials under the public official system in Korea. The guidelines and leaflets for green public procurement are distributed in advance. Furthermore, on-demand training is provided during the year based on request for an in-house intensive consultation. Each institution is provided with tailored training by analyzing the purchase records of the relevant institution and reflecting suggestions for improvement. In addition, KEITI establishes the Standard Ordinance for Promotion of Green Procurement and distributes it to local governments and education authorities in order to assist municipal and provincial governments in establishing local-level ordinance for encouraging the purchase of green products. The Standard Ordinance for Promotion of Green Procurement for local governments was established and distributed in April 2006. At present, a total of 242 out of 244 local governments have established their own ordinance for GPP, recording an ordinance establishment ratio of 99.2 percent. The Standard Ordinance for Promotion of Green Procurement for education authorities was established and distributed in July 2013. In Korea, environmental benefits of GPP are estimated from the amount of green products purchase and expressed in two different ways. First, overall environmental benefits are calculated by comparing impact reduction for proxy eco-labelled products (134 product categories) with conventional products. Due to lack of data, only 10 environmental characteristics/parameters are considered including reduction of toxic substances; recycling of resources; energy saving; low noise; eco-design; reduction of ecosystem toxicity; resource saving; reduction of indoor air pollutants; reduction of outdoor air pollutants; reduction of human toxicity. Second, CO2 equivalent reduction is calculated by comparing CO2 equivalent emissions for proxy eco-labelled products (19 product categories) with conventional products. Economic benefits are calculated based on the costs of environmental parameters mentioned above. Job creation is calculated from the expenditure on green products and based on a figure provided by the Bank of Korea (the employment inducement coefficient – nº of persons/won expend). This indicator is used to demonstrate the relationship between expenditures on green public procurement over time with number of jobs created. • Strategically expand the scope of eco-labeled products by analyzing product groups among the goods in high demand by the PPS • Improve the GPP monitoring system by linking accounting system of each public institution to the Green Procurement Information Platform. • Encourage to designate green procurement officials in each public institution, and offer them more intensive and extensive specialized training. • Provide networking opportunities between manufacturers and procurers in order to facilitate understanding on the needs of procurers as well as green products • Improve methodologies to evaluate sustainability impacts of the GPP and communicate the benefits of GPP to public • Develop and expand incentives for outstanding green procurement agencies and staff