As part of the project “Green Public Procurement: Transfer of Experience from Slovakia to Ukraine” implementing, the official GPP website is launched.
On the website http://gpp.golocal-ukraine.com, will be published the latest news in the GPP area, as well as results of the Ukrainian-Slovak project implementing. In addition, on-line course on green procurement will be launched on this website (at the completion stage now). So anyone who wants to know about the GPP benefits can take an educational course specifically designed by the Slovak and Ukrainian experts.
GPP is actually a tendering process in which government institutions prefer goods or services with a minimal impact on the environment. That is environmentally harmless, or economical.
“Slovakia is one of the first countries of Central Europe to adopt the relevant regulations and has been successfully continuing this practice for more than 10 years. Cooperation with Slovakia on this issue is the best option for us. We seem to have a past, a similar mentality and problems, especially in the area of the environment. Knowledge of our Slovak colleagues is very useful to us, probably even more than the experience of other European countries, where the path to green public procurement is very different from ours”, – says Igor Comendo, NGO GoLOCAL Director.
According to the project manager of the Slovak Center for Communication and Development (SCCD) Klara Tokhtova, the target audience of the project is not the decision of the state authorities.
“Public authorities are probably the largest consumers of resources. After all, there are thousands of office buildings that use electricity, water, paper, utensils and other goods in the work process. And if such institutions begin to apply the green procurement principle – for example, buying office paper from the counterpart, or energy efficient light bulbs instead of ordinary, even detergents with a minimum content of harmful substances. As a result, the country will be able to save an enormous amount of resources, reduce the need for product disposal and thus have a positive impact on the environment “, – assures Ms. Klara.
The project Green Public Procurement: Transfer of Experience from Slovakia to Ukraine is primarily educational, and aims to inform the public and state authorities as much as possible about the importance of using green procurement tools and the powerful impact of this process on the environment in Ukraine. Therefore, in the framework of the project, the Slovak experts together with the experts NGO GoLOCAL developed an educational course for representatives of government bodies responsible for tender procurement. Within the course, seminars and trainings will be held, as well as an on-line course on green procurement. The Slovak side will also be provided with expert assessments of the relevant legislative acts of Ukraine and recommendations for the implementation of European legislation.
