Good practice:

Use of the carbon footprint as an award criterion in a tender

Andalusian law on Climate Change Measures (2018) promotes circular procurement.
..public entities..will promote climate change..mitigation and the transition towards a new energetic model..
The definition of award criteria and special implementation conditions that take into account the environmental impact of each product, or service provided,..
The definition of award criteria that preferably value reduction, reuse and recycling processes of products as well as the reduction of Greeenhouse Gas emissions in production processes, their comercialization and distribution.
These references are applicable to any product and service with an environmental impact.
Contract: WORKS FOR SEALING THE INERT LANDFILL OF DEHESAS VIEJAS, GRANADA. The activity’s largest negative environmental impact is the transportation service.
About award criteria, up to 100 points can be obtained:
Project details,16; Methodology,5; Schedule,4; Materials study,20; Price,45; Carbon footprint from use of heavy machinery: 10.
10% is awarded directly by the environmental performance of the bidding company.
10 points are assigned to the one with the smallest footprint, and with a rule of proportions, the scores are assigned to the rest.
Methodology for calculating the footprint is also provided. Calculations are homogeneous and comparable. Any company can do it without the need for complex technical resources.
Companies only need:
Type of vehicle (rigid, articulated)
Travel distances
Level of load

No financial resources are needed.
A methodology for calculating the footprint is required
Technically solid to be able to fulfill the objective that is pursued
Simple enough for any company to participate in the tender
The staff that prepares the contracting specifications must be trained.

the Dehesas Viejas (Granada) Landfill sealing tender was granted applying the criteria and the works are underway. The carbon footprint has been included in the award process for a contract of over 2 MM€. This resulted in the reduction of GHG emissions in the works carried out resulting from a contractual legal guarantee. The main success consists in that this criteria can now be included in further tenders, as the legal obstacles for their application have been overcome.

Identifying and quantifying the carbon footprint of the contract to be awarded. Our case was simpler due to the activities that generate GHG are easily identified (transportation services) and constitute the main activities of the works carried out. Other cases would be more difficult.

This practice is universally transferable to any region.
This practice achieves defining an easy and transparent methodology to calculate an activity’s environmental impact.
The practice does not discriminate against companies as it does not require being registered in any registry or obtaining any eco-label.
The ideal situation is for the activities to meet a predefined carbon footprint goal according to the tender standards, or even improve it.
It is a very simple practice to follow when activities can clearly identify and define their impact. In this case, we need to consider the amount of fuel consumed and the vehicle characteristics.
The simpler it is to identify the footprint, the easier it will be to apply the criteria.