Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP)

Please note: Most links lead to pages in Dutch.

Themes SPP

Important themes within SPP are among others: 

• Internationale social conditions
  Internationale social conditions (Internationale sociale voorwaarden) focus on promoting international labour standards and human rights, including combating forced labour, slavery, child labour and unfair discrimination.
• Social return
  Social return and purchasing from social enterprises promote labor market participation and create employment opportunities for people in vulnerable positions on the labor market.
• Circularity
  Circular procurement (Circulariteit) is an important tool in the pursuit of a circular economy. Within it, you repurpose products, components and materials in the best way possible.
• Environment
  Through procurement, you can contribute to a better environment (Milieu), combating pollution, and protecting the living environment and biodiversity.
• Climate
  You can also make climate-conscious purchases (Klimaat) and prevent the emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
• Diversity and inclusion
  In a diverse and inclusive society (Diversiteit en Inclusie), everyone is treated equally, regardless of who they are, whom they love, where they come from, or what they believe.
• Innovation
  The government can use procurement as a way of encouraging the market to come up with innovative solutions (Innovatie). 

Policy and implementation SPP

Government procurement amounts to nearly 116 billion euros per year. It thus has a significant impact on the environment and on social issues, both here and in other countries. Deliberately targeted sustainable public procurement is a powerful tool for achieving major sustainability goals. See for further details the page Policy and implementation.

Practice and tools SPP

There are several tools that you can use when applying sustainable procurement. Examples are the MVI-criteriatool (environmental criteria for SPP), de MVI-zelfevaluatietool (self-assessment tool) and the Wegwijzer MVOI (with information and tools). There are also various guidelines, best practices and studies available. See the complete overview on the page Praktijk&Tools.

Buyer Groups

In the Netherlands, contracting authorities in the public and private sector that wish to incorporate climate impact, circularity and social goals into their procurements can join a buyer group. In a buyer group, they work together to develop a shared market vision and strategy for a specific product category. This gives a clear signal to the market and allows members to share costs and risks. See for further details the page Buyer groups for sustainability.