What you will find in this guide?

 On this site you will find information on the environmental and social aspects for a large number of products and services. Support is therefor offered to buyers in their attempt to take account of sustainable development in public procurements.  The site is continuously being developed as a result of preparatory research and consultation with interest groups. The quality of the information and its usability within the context of public procurement therefore differs from product to product and service to service. Reference can be made to three development levels: -Level1: Source information (information available in EN, FR, NL, DE):  At this level you can find information about the availability of sources for sustainable criteria. In most cases the references are to specific eco-labels for a product or service.  - Level 2: Preliminary research (information available in EN, FR, NL): At this level the source information (level 1) is further developed based on a comparative analysis of the criteria from the specifications of eco-labels. In addition, attention is devoted to social aspects for a specific product or service. The results are included in files. These give buyers indications about how sustainable criteria can be correctly legally included.  - Level 3: Validated documents: (information available in FR, NL): Finally, the preliminary research (level 2) is subjected to market research and discussed with various parties involved. The results can be found in validated files that give more detailed information than the files from the preliminary research. For levels 2 and 3, the purchaser can add additional references to the files in his specifications, such as: - other scientific evidence than the eco-labels for the assessment of the quotations;- additional references to social aspects;-additional references to economic techniques;- the adaptation of the weighing of the awarding criteria. Read more >>