GREEN IS THE NEW GOLD: GOING GREEN IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA – THE USE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS IN THE CRITERIA AND CONTRACT TERMS OF TENDER PROCEDURES

Abstract

Unsustainable consumption and production measures in human society have culminated in detrimental impacts on the environment and its resources, leading to increasing pressure being placed on both public and private sectors to adopt more environmentally sustainable practices. Public procurement law, a facet of administrative law, governs the interface between the public and private sectors in that it regulates rules of trade in procurement of products and services by the government from private sector businesses. Thus, in line with emerging global public procurement trends, this article posits that there is significant potential for influencing the environmental impact of consumption and production measures through Green Public Procurement (“GPP”), whereby public bodies may elect to prefer the procurement of environmentally sustainable products and services over their competitive alternatives. While there are multiple mechanisms within the stages of public procurement which may be utilised to achieve this objective, this article focuses on the potential for GPP to be employed using the preferential procurement system unique to South African public procurement law to incentivise businesses to follow more environmentally friendly models, with a use case focusing on the procurement of environmentally friendly products.