On 26 August 2015, the Government of the Republic of Croatia adopted the first National Action Plan for green public procurement for the period from 2015 to 2017 with a vision to 2020.

The goal of this action plan is to include certain green public procurement measures by 2020 in 50% of public procurement procedures. Green public procurement is a procedure whereby public administration bodies encourage the purchase of ‘green’ products and services, namely those that over their lifecycles have less impact on the environment than those products that they would otherwise buy.

By choosing goods, services and works with less impact of the environment, significant contributions are made to reducing resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and to the goals of sustainable development.

The European Union has determined as a strategic goal by 2020 for entire EU that at least 50% of public procurement procedures will be implemented by applying green public procurement measures, and the goal was also adopted by Croatia.

In the National Action Plan the focus was put on the introduction of basic green measures in public procurement for priority groups of products and services: print and copy paper, motor cars, office and IT equipment, electric power, telecommunication services and mobile network services together with devices and cleaning services.

For every group of products criteria are determined that contain key pressures on the environment, and they include resource and energy consumption, impacts on biodiversity, toxicity, pollutant emissions, greenhouse gas emissions and CO2 and waste at the place of generation. The green public procurement criteria from the action plan are based on the criteria prepared by the European Commission.

The action plan is primarily dedicated to parties liable to public procurement in accordance with the Public Procurement Act. It may serve, however, also as an incentive for introducing green measures in so called bargain purchase procedures and as an impulse to the private sector in Croatia to introduce in its operation green public procurement practice.

Local self-government units as parties liable to public procurement procedures are expected to give their contribution. Therefore one measure relates to efforts to introduce measures for the promotion of green public procurement in strategic document of local self-government units.