EU rules relating to environmental issues in contracts

Whether a contract is competitively tested informally, or through a formal tender process, environmental requirements must:

• be included within the tender
• be appropriate and relevant to the product or service
• not be anti-commercial
• not be anti-competitive, and must be equally capable of being met by suppliers from all member states in the EU.

Contract awards can take environmental requirements into consideration (for example, whole life costs of a product or service). Suppliers cannot be rejected because they do not comply with EMAS or ISO 14001, as these schemes are voluntary.