The decisions of public procurement that our administrations make now will affect infrastructures, construction, housing, transport, education, health, food, and investments for the ecological transition that we need to set in motion. In this process, green public procurement is a key instrument.
The start of the political year in Europe also represents an opportunity to review the rules that delineate “how to buy”. In this direction, the European Commission presented on September 9 the proposal for the European Public Procurement Regulation (Public Procurement Act). The objective? To turn the three 2014 directives into a single regulation, simplify the European public procurement framework and strengthen its strategic role.
How we use public money once we have decided to spend it is also important. Public procurement is not just about managing expenditure. It is economic, industrial, environmental, and social policy. Each year, administrations allocate a very significant portion of their resources to constructing and managing buildings and offices, maintaining roads, purchasing vehicles, contracting services, acquiring food, or equipping schools and hospitals. These decisions not only fulfill public needs: they can also steer markets, boost innovation and accelerate the transition toward a more sustainable and competitive economy. Public procurement, therefore, should not be understood solely as a mechanism to acquire goods, services, or works. It is also a way to use public resources strategically and to send signals to markets.
Spain now has a concrete opportunity to move in that direction. The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge has submitted for public information, until October 7, the draft Plan for Ecological Public Procurement 2026-2033, which can turn the administrations’ buying capacity into a lever to accelerate the ecological transition, decarbonize our economy, boost the circular economy and steer markets toward more sustainable solutions, as proposed by ECODES.
“Public procurement is also a way to strategically use public resources and to send signals to markets”
The moment is especially relevant. The previous plan, in effect from 2018 to 2025, advanced the incorporation of environmental criteria and established priority groups of goods, works and services. The Catalogue of Ecological Technical Specifications is a good example of this. But the application of these criteria remains uneven and depends, to a large extent, on the capacities and decisions of each administration.
The final plan must take a further step: move from facilitating greener procurement to using it strategically to transform markets. Because public procurement can achieve something that few economic policies manage: to create demand on a large scale. When an administration requires low-carbon materials, circular products, energy-efficient buildings, or foods procured under sustainability criteria, it is not only adjusting the characteristics of a contract. It is sending a market signal. A company is unlikely to invest in expanding its capacity for low-carbon steel, recycled materials, or energy-efficient solutions if it does not perceive a stable demand. A well-planned public procurement can reduce that uncertainty and contribute to turning sustainable solutions that today are minority into competitive markets.
To achieve this, the final plan should prioritize sectors with the greatest environmental impacts and the greatest capacity for transformation, and establish progressive criteria that anticipate where public demand is headed. The transformation should begin even before bidding, evaluating the real need for purchase and exploring alternatives such as reuse, repair, extending the life of assets, or service-based models. Buying better also means asking whether it is necessary to buy at all.
“A well-planned public procurement can reduce that uncertainty and contribute to turning sustainable solutions that today are minority into competitive markets”
Increasing environmental ambition does not mean closing markets. On the contrary: a well-designed procurement can open opportunities for innovative companies and, especially, for SMEs. Proportional solvency requirements, division into lots where appropriate, accessible accreditation systems, and proper procurement planning can facilitate participation. Early market dialogue is essential: if companies know today what environmental requirements they will have to meet, they can adapt tomorrow their products, processes, and capabilities. Public procurement thus becomes a tool of industrial foresight, rather than merely reacting to the current supply.
But for this transformation to be real, Spain will also need to address another question: what are we achieving with public spending. We require clear, homogeneous, complete, and up-to-date information on how environmental criteria are incorporated into public contracts. Knowing how many contracts include green clauses is necessary, but not sufficient. The relevant question is what results they are producing: how many emissions are avoided, how much resource consumption is reduced, what degree of circularity is achieved, or what improvements in energy efficiency are realized. This also means moving beyond the initial price logic and toward an evaluation that accounts for total cost and environmental performance throughout the life cycle of goods, services, and works.
Therefore, it is essential to establish common indicators, tracking mechanisms, and higher standards of transparency and accountability, advancing toward a results- and impact-oriented procurement that enables identifying areas for improvement.
“Knowing how many contracts contain green clauses is necessary, but not sufficient. The relevant question is what results they are producing”
Ambition must be matched by technical capacity. For this, the contracting bodies need clear criteria, common methodologies, verification tools, and technical assistance, especially those with fewer resources. In this sense, the Catalogue of Ecological Technical Specifications should become a more operational and dynamic tool, with harmonized criteria, model tender clauses, and practical resources, updated periodically.
Moreover, Spain is not starting from zero. The Climate Change and Energy Transition Law already establishes the obligation to systematically incorporate environmental and sustainability criteria into public procurement. The challenge now is to implement and operationalize that mandate in a homogeneous, ambitious, and measurable way.
And doing it now makes sense. The Plan 2026-2033 can provide that framework at a particularly timely moment. Europe is advancing in a broader transformation of its industrial framework, opening an opportunity to align competitiveness, decarbonization and public demand.
Spain has the opportunity to anticipate and place its new framework and strategy in that same direction: to use public procurement not only to reduce the environmental impact of its purchases, but also to generate demand, give predictability to businesses and boost the solutions and industrial capacities that we will need in the coming years. We do not simply need a new green public procurement plan; we need a strategy to buy better and, with that, to transform the markets.
