Necessary Steps
- Review the various existing sustainability criteria available for public procurement for catering services, alongside other criteria presented on the aggregate level (e.g. the EU’s Green Procurement Criteria, Sustainable Procurement Competence Centre, Fair Trade Towns, and Organic Towns Network, which can be accessed via the links below). Bear in mind that sustainability criteria include, and may mix, social and economic criteria with environmental ones.
- Create a draft sustainable tender template based on existing tender formats by adding your chosen sustainable procurement criteria.
- Discuss the criteria with the respective contracting authority, procurers, caterers, and customers, and be prepared to negotiate if and when necessary.
- Procurement officers can then deploy these criteria when drafting a tender, and then legally review the obligation before including it in the final tender.
More Issues To Consider
- It requires skilful procurement to use sustainability criteria in a productive way. Criteria which are too tight may be counterproductive, as the market may not be able to respond to these tenders.
- Sustainability criteria may also change over the years as buyers and sellers aim at higher sustainability levels, as well as in accordance with changes in (procurement) regulation.
- It is of the utmost importance to legally review the template tender before starting the procurement in order to avoid legal challenges.
Further Information
- Green Public Procurement Criteria - Food, catering services and vending machines
- ICLEI’s Sustainable Procurement Platform
- Guidance and quality standards by the German Nutrition Society (in German)
- Guidance of the Organic Cities Network (in German)
- Guidance by the Competence Centre of Bavaria (in German)
- Competence Centre Sustainable Procurement (in German)
Disclaimer
The information on this page about the use of the tool “Tender template for sustainable catering services” is only provided as a general guide and is not intended as a substitute for the user to check the respective public procurement regulations. We compiled the content to the best of our knowledge, but do not assume any liability for completeness and correctness. We do not assume any liability for the user to verify the applicable procurement law provisions in the respective national state.
