Environmental science and market research on product group-related minimum requirements for the public procurement of technical equipment

With the Berlin Tendering and Award Act (BerlAVG) of 2010, the state of Berlin created the legal basis for public funds to be invested in environmentally sound products, construction and services. The Administrative Regulation on Procurement and the Environment (VwVBU), which has been in force since 2013, was issued to implement the Tendering and Award Act. The administrative regulation applies to all awards of supply, construction and service contracts with an estimated net contract value of 10,000 euros or more and is mandatory for all direct and indirect Land administrations. Annex 1 of the VwVBU sets out specific minimum requirements for product groups on the basis of performance sheets, e.g. for lighting products, for technical equipment, recycled and environmental protection paper, hygiene articles, office furniture, and many other product groups.

Since both the EU legal requirements for market access and the labelling of energy-related products and the availability of corresponding products on the market are subject to constant change, the concrete minimum requirements in Annex 1 of the VwVBU in particular must be reviewed at regular intervals in order to make the requirements practicable, market-oriented and also ecologically ambitious.

Against this background, the basic market availability of suitable products, the availability of reliable product information and the securing of purchasing in the ecologically high-quality market segment were examined for 13 product groups. In addition, it was examined whether it is possible and sensible to include specifications for take-back, reverse logistics, recycling, reuse and remarketing concepts in the product-related specifications for the product groups already at the purchasing stage.