The Role of Local Contracting Authorities in Green Purchasing of Paper Products

Abstract

Green Public Procurement is currently a voluntary instrument to promote Sustainable Consumption and Production and Sustainable Industrial Policy. Surveys in this field help to understand how individual States, Public Authorities and Organizations, are approaching this voluntary instrument and thus how far they support Eco-Innovations and Sustainable Economy. Our survey focuses on mapping of units of local self-governments in the Slovak Republic that carried out Green Public Procurement in the category of paper products through the Electronic Contracting System (ECS) in 2017. We consider local self-government units to be major consumers of paper products, especially because of their extensive administration, what makes them a target group to promote the use of Green Public Procurement in a given category in practice. The total number of contracts awarded through the ECS in 2017 was 471. As the results show, the share of Green Public Procurements in the total number of Public Procurements in the Slovak Republic in 2017 was not satisfactory. In order to improve the situation, it is necessary to further deepen the targeted dissemination of examples of good practice in Green Public Procurement.