The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in Ireland has issued a Circular "Promoting the use of Environmental and Social Considerations in Public Procurement".

The purpose of the Circular is to promote the wider use of environmental and social considerations in public procurement with specific regard to the "Climate Action Plan 2019". It aims to make Green Public Procurement part of the mainstream public procurement process.

The Climate Action Plan will require every public body to have a climate mandate. A key element of such a mandate will be using public procurement to deliver change.

Green Public Procurement is a process where public authorities seek to source goods, services or works with a reduced environmental impact. The appropriateness of including
environmental measures in public procurement projects will vary from contract to contract and is primarily a matter for individual contracting authorities. Each stage in the procurement process offers opportunities to take green issues into account. Once a decision has been taken by a contracting authority to include environmental criteria, this should be clearly signaled at all stages of the procurement process from business case and specification stages through to the selection, award and contract management stages.

The Government has agreed that there will be a phased introduction of green criteria targeting priority products and services as well as building appropriate green criteria into OGP frameworks and providing support and guidance to procurers.