ECPAR | Espace québécois de concertation sur les pratiques d'approvisionnement responsable

Additional information

The basic concept of GPP relies on having clear, verifiable, justifiable and ambitious environmental criteria for products and services, based on a life-cycle approach and scientific evidence base. The criteria used by Member States should be similar to avoid a distortion of the single market and a reduction of EU-wide competition. Having common criteria reduces considerably the administrative burden for economic operators and for public administrations implementing GPP. GPP does not set out to detail each and every aspect of a product’s life cycle. Rather, by judicious use of published ecolabel and/or life cycle information it focuses on key aspects.
 
Since 2008, the Commission has developed more than 20 common GPP criteria among which:
 
  • Cleaning products 
  • Combined heat and power
  • Construction
  • Copying and graphic paper
  • Electricity
  • Food and catering services
  • Furniture
  • Gardening product and services
  • Imaging equipment
  • Transport
  • etc.