Action 1: Development of a National Circular on Green Procurement
Action completed. Following protracted negotiations within government, Circular 20/2019 was finally published on 18th October 2019.. Since then, DCCAE has supported Government departments and public bodies implement the circular and GPP in general. A monitoring and reporting template is currently being developed and will be included in the Annual Report of each Government Department.
Action 2: Development of a national training plan
The second key action was to develop a national GPP training plan. Due to the challenges presented by Covid-19, a pilot training event was held virtually using some live video sessions and some pre recorded videos.
Based on the feedback provided, a national training plan was developed which commenced in October 2020 and will run online until January 2021. There has been considerable interest in these training events which have provided, and will provide, GPP training to procurers across the public sector.
Action 3: Revision of national guidance on green public procurement
Public procurement professionals have expressed a clear need for accurate GPP guidance that they can refer to with confidence. The current GPP guidance was originally published in 2014 and required updating. The new GPP guidance is now at final draft stage and is now undergoing a period of targeted consultation before final publication in 2021. The revised guidelines will greatly assist procurers to include GPP criteria in a wide variety of procurement campaigns.
