Analysis of the environmental criteria in public procurements

Abstract

Although much effort has been shown to regulate the public procurement, Brazilian laws allows very restrictive use of environmental requirements in procurement processes, prohibiting exigences for manufacturers or suppliers of materials. This work proposes to identify the criteria utilized in public procurement processes and analyze their influence on compliance with constitutional requirements for environmental protection and on the incentive for national sustainable development. The data were obtained from the Federal Government, INMETRO and ISO portals. Buyers and suppliers were asked to estimate how environmental requirements were used in bidding processes. We analyzed 756482 processes carried out from 1997 to 2014, which resulted in the purchase of over 16 million items. Of these, only 0.28% are considered sustainable items according to the classification given by the Ministry of Planning and Budget, used in the Federal Government Materials Catalog. In this context, there is a great opportunity for the government to drive sustainable national development through public procurement, encouraging the development and supply of products with the best environmental and social performance.