During 1 – 2 May 2013, a Regional Networking Workshop on Green Public Procurement and Eco-labelling were organized at Phuket, Thailand. It aimed to share experiences and lesson learnt in Green Public Procurement and Eco-labelling among the ASEAN countries.

With unique climatic conditions, long coastlines and high CO2-emissions, Southeast Asia is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change yet also offers high potential for emission reduction and mitigation against global warming and climate change. Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) patterns are crucial to mitigate those risks. Green Public Procurement/Sustainable Public Procurement is therefore seen as one of the important policy instruments towards green market development and becomes more and more important worldwide.
In Thailand, Green Public Procurement was introduced by Pollution Control Department (PCD), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, since 2005. PCD has since then acted as focal point for the implementation of the “Public Green Product and Service Procurement Promotion Plan, 2008-2011”. In the 2nd “Public Green Product and Service Procurement Promotion Plan, 2013 – 2016”. GPP has been planned to cover other organizations more than in the first plan, namely local authorities, state institutions, universities and the private sector.
Since June 2012, German International Cooperation (GIZ) works with Pollution Control Department (PCD) on implementation of project “Sustainable Consumption and Production for Low Carbon Economy – Low Emissions Public Procurement and Eco-labeling (SCP4LCE), which is funded by the German Ministry for the Environment-Natural Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). Apart from PCD GIZ is implementing the project in close cooperation with Thailand Environment Institute (TEI), The Federation of Thai Industry (FTI), Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization (Public Organization) (TGO), and United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).

The project consists of 3 work packages namely, WP1: incorporating of climate-friendly criteria into existing eco-label; WP2: Developing and strengthen climate-friendly GPP; WP3: Experiences of climate friendly from Thailand will be shared with other countries in the region. Under the WP3, the project aims at sharing experiences, lesson learnt, exchanging information on the good practice in GPP and eco-labels in the region. The ultimate goal is to cooperate on the regional market development for green products by means of strengthen GPP and eco-labeling on regional level.

The presentations are avialable to be downloaded as below.