March 31, 2003—European Public Administrations can save greenhouse gas emissions amounting to 18% of Europe’s Kyoto obligations just by switching to renewable electricity, and purchasing organic food for consumption in public canteens would reduce damage to European soils and waters by an equivalent of over 3,500,000 inhabitants. These are some of the first results of the EU research project RELIEF, which is laying down easy-to-use guidelines for local authorities to adopt a more environmentally friendly approach to the purchase of electricity, construction, information technology equipment, food and public transport.
The RELIEF project is the first of its kind to quantify the environmental impact of switching to eco-friendly products, as well as the financial gains that can be made by using more efficient products, according to the European Commission. “Thanks to this data, public administrations can begin to make informed choices about their responsibility to the environment and to citizen’s quality of life,” said European Research Commissioner Phillippe Busquin.
The RELIEF project involves 6 local authorities in 5 countries (Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Sweden and Switzerland) to calculate the financial and environmental benefits of using renewable electricity, energy-saving desktop computers, and water-saving sanitary devices.
According to the project, if public administrations would switch to renewable electricity they would reduce greenhouse emissions by an equivalent of over 7 million people. Water saving taps and toilet flushes would reduce water consumption equivalent to that of over 3 million people. Providing organic food in European public canteens would represent a relief on waters and soil equivalent to the impact of a big city like Berlin.
By switching to low-energy computers, public administrations would save greenhouse gases emissions as produced by 100,000 persons. But the high level of public purchase of computers is likely to have a significant market impact and so give a strong signal to suppliers for progressively offering more and more green devices. The potential emissions reduction is of nearly 1,000,000 person equivalents.
The RELIEF Project is now engaged in promoting these measures via information dissemination, training, networking and joint procurement programs held in public administrations at both national and local levels. These initiatives will be presented at the next EcoProcura conference, which will take place September 8-10, 2003 in Gteborg, Sweden.
Further details are now available in the recent publication “Buying into the Environment: Experiences, Opportunities, and Potential for Eco-procurement.” To order or for more information about the RELIEF research, visit the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI).
