A multicriteria model to evaluate tenders for green procurement of public works

Abstract

Public procurement is quite an important activity in the European Union as it corresponds to more than 13% of the GNP in the EU (2017), and public works account for more than €500 000 M, which is about 25% of the total public procured value. The construction sector is responsible for about 38% of energy-related carbon emissions and 50% of resource consumption. Therefore, procurement of public works (PPW) should be considered a strategic instrument to pursue sustainable policies, but, quite often, the award criterion does not consider the sustainability objectives. The authors present in this paper a new multicriteria model to evaluate tenders to award design or design and build contracts for public works, respecting the principles of public procurement expressed by the European Directives of 2014 and pursuing the sustainability objectives according to the so-called Green Procurement. This model can be easily applied as it is confirmed by its application to the study of the procurement of a new public hospital in Portugal.