Issues concerning sustainability and the environment have not only been prominent in the media in recent years. The UK government and the the European Union have been producing guidelines and also binding legislation regarding policy on the environment, sustainability and more specifically on sustainable procurement. It can be difficult for organisations to find a starting point to discover what they need to comply with when it comes to the laws of the UK, never mind the legislation brought out by the European Union.This page gives some useful pointers about what are the main pieces of legislation to be aware of in the field of sustainable procurement in the UK.
| Environmental Protection Act 1990 | A major piece of environmental law from 1990. |
| Environmental protection Act from 1990 covers many subject areas including, Pollution control, Air Pollution control, Waste and recycling, litter, Radioactive substances, nature conservancy and the countryside. | |
| website | www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1990/UKpga_19900043_en_1.htm |
| Procurement Policy and EU Rules | Office of Government Commerce website with information on EU legislation affecting procurement. |
| A very useful starting point for researching further into how EU legislation influences procurement policy for EU member countries. There are many useful links to other websites all giving helpful information. | |
| Website | http://www.ogc.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1000084 |
| Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Councilof 31 March 2004 | The central piece of legislation in public procurement in Europe |
| This Directive sets out the current European legislation on the co-ordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts , public supply contracts and public service contracts. | |
| website | http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2004/l_134/l_13420040430en01140240.pdf |
| Directive 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31/03/04 | Co-ordinating the procurement procedures of entities working in the water, energy, transport, and postal services sections. |
| Website | http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/publicprocurement/legislation_en.htm |
| Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) | EU Directive 2002/96/EC sets targets for recovery, reuse and recycling of electrical and electronic equipment. |
| Compliance with WEEE and RoHS is expected to cost the industry about $40 billion mostly for redesigning and retooling for manufacture. | This directive came about as a result of the vast amount of 'E-waste' which is being recognised as a global problem. An estimated 254 million home computers became obsolete in the US between 1997 and 2003. An additional 250 million are expected to become obsolete between 2004 and 2007. |
| website | http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2003/l_037/l_03720030213en00240038.pdf |
| Restriction on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) | EU Directive 2002/95/EC must be fully complied with by the electronics industry by July 1, 2006 |
| RoHS is a Directive from the EU aimed at restricting the use of environmentally hazardous substances. | "Member states shall ensure that from 1 July 2006, new electrical and electronic equipment put on the market does not contain lead, mercury,cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenals (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE)". Lead is considered the biggest problem but other materials are also going to have to be removed from product designs. |
| website | http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2003/l_037/l_03720030213en00190023.pdf |
| Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) 1997 | This Regulation was brought out to bring EU Directive 94/62/EC on Packaging and Waste into UK Law. |
| A User guide to this legislation can be found at | In summary this regulation places specific recovery and recycling obligations on all UK businesses with a turnover of above £2 million. http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/topics/packaging/pdf/userguide.pdf |
| website | www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1997/1970648.htm |
| Public Procurement and Race Equality | A downloadable Publication from the Commission for Racial Equality. |
| This publication gives a helpful introduction on how The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 and the Race Relations Act 1976 need to be taken into consideration by procurement professionals . This is a reminder that sustainable procurement encompasses not merely environmentalissues but also wider social and ethical concerns like the equal treatment of minority groups. | |
| http://www.cre.gov.uk/proc_public.pdf | |
| EU ScadPLUS | A summary of current EU Legislation. A handy reference point for investigating how EU legislation relates to a wide variety of different subjects. |
| This website contains factsheets on EU legislation covering 32 different subject areas.The site is devised to give up to date information on EU legislation which is summarised in such a way that it is useful for non-specialist users. | |
| http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/s15000.htm |