Green Procurement

Poland

Current national procurement legislation/standards from the project-relevant fields

IT- no
household appliances - no
lighting - no
green power - no
vehicles - no
building components - yes
other (that could serve as a relevant example) - no
general/universal - no

There is no in Poland legislation/standards related green (public) procurement specifically. However, the existing law regulations leave a real open space for applying of the energy efficiency and environmentally related requirements to the procurement procedures both for public and commercial entities.

The basic law regulation on this field is a Public Procurement Law PPL (law no.Dz. U. z 2004 r. Nr 19, poz. 177), of which applying is obligatory for public entities. This law allows the possibility of use the energy efficiency and environmental criteria in procurement procedures.

In parallel, based on the Polish Energy Law (Dz. U. 1997 nr 54 poz. 348), there have been established many different regulations (ordinances), regarding minimum energy efficiency standards and energy labelling for the household appliances, lighting equipment and other energy consuming devices. It concerns especially the following ordinances:

on requirements for technical documentation, applying of energy labels and energy charasteristics and patterns of energy labels for appliances (Dz.U. 2005 nr 98 poz. 825).
on principal energy efficiency requirements for the water heating boilers fuelled by the liquid and gas fuels (law no. Dz.U. 2005 nr 218 poz. 1846),
on general requirements on energy efficiency labelling and technical characteristics for household appliances (law no. Dz. U. nr 79/2003 poz. 714). Separate ordinances have been launched for particular types of machines (refrigerators, washing machines, etc.),
on general requirements on energy efficiency labelling and technical characteristics for light sources and fluorescent lamps (law no.Dz. U. nr 79/2003 poz. 714),
others,

The ordinances indicated above for the relevant fields consider regulations strictly connected with the process of implementation of several EU directives related energy efficiency issues to the economy in general. Based on these regulations, Public Procurement Law allows applying specific energy efficiency and environmental requirements in tender documentation and during the phase of evaluation and qualification of the offers.

The second important regulation is the Act on Support for Thermal Modernisation Investment (Thermal Modernisation Act - TMA) introduced in Poland on 28 December 1998 (law no. Dz. U. 162/1998 poz. 1121). Based on this act, it is possible to obtain financial support from the State Budget for the investments focused on improvement of energy efficiency in all types of housing and public utility buildings belonging to municipalities. The maximum amount of support is 20% of the total investment cost and applying for it has to be preceded by performing of an energy audit. Energy audit has to consist of technical and economical analysis considering utilization of the modern and energy efficient technologies as well as renewables (on the preferential rules). Employing of the Public Procurement Law in this case is obligatory when the amount of state subsidy exceeds 6 k€ and for public entities.

The subsidy scheme based on TMA is periodically controlled by the Supreme Chamber of Control of Poland. Controls covers general scheme operational issues as well as achieving of assumed effectiveness (energy and economical) for chosen investments. Environmental effect is not monitored so far neither for particular investments nor for the whole scheme.

The similar rules regarding public procurement rules are valid for subsidy schemes based on Environmental Funds.

Current national practice

As it was mentioned above, the existing PPL creates sufficient opportunities and allows for applying in the procurement procedures energy efficiency and environmental criteria. Those opportunities are not fully exploited in practice. Excluding the TMA and Environmental Funds where considering of the energy efficiency issues and modern technologies is obligatory, in case of ordinary procurement practise such criteria are practically not used at all.

According to the long term practice and earlier experiences the dominant criteria was the price of the order. The only additional criteria have been commonly used in the past were quality of the product and the period and conditions of the products’ warranties.
An exception to the rule can be modernisation of the street lighting realised numerously by the local municipalities. Realisation of such investments in Poland is based on very popular in this case Third Party Financing scheme considering also the requirements of PPL. By the natural reasons there are used very modern and energy efficient light sources and control systems.

Recognised barriers

There are no distinct and significant obstacles for introduction of green procurement standards in Poland. However, introduction of law obligations regarding this matter would undoubtedly start and speed up the process of larger use of green procurement approach and significantly increase of the real use of energy efficiency and environmental criteria in procurement procedures.

The main barriers for introduction of green procurement standards/legislation at present seem to be a lack of common awareness on the potential energetic, environmental and economical benefits raised from such approach and lack of knowledge and experiences regarding technical and procedural aspects.

The important problem is also insufficient lobbing activities on this field among the policy and decision makers. There are no related legislative initiatives at the moment.

The basic barriers for regular implementation of existent legislations are similar as mentioned above for introduction of green procurement standards.

Opportunities

Introduction and development of green purchase practice in Poland would be particularly effective in connection with large existing potential to be utilised due to the significant share of outdated and exploited equipment in general both in public and private entities.
Great opportunity is created by the document adopted by Ministry of Environment of Poland in 2006 entitled: “Roadmap for implementation of scheme of action for environmental technologies in Poland”. The document assumes, among other thinks, realisation of large information and promotional actions and campaigns as well as permanent trainings aimed at improvement of skills of administration staff in public institutions related use of “green criteria” in procurement procedures and tender documentation. Relevant catalogues of “green products and services” will be prepared and will be available on webpage.

This opportunity should also be used for introduction of necessary amendments and improvements to the PPL. Elaboration of the tools for calculation on energy, economic and environmental effects as well as standardised procedures and tender documentation would provide a significant support for successful implementation into practice “green procurement”.