# Green Public Procurement at a Regional Level.
## 2 Background and Previous Findings
### Research on GPP Construction Sector  
The construction sector is a significant user of natural resources and energy [17]. As a result, this sector has been largely responsible for environmental pollution and problems related to sustainability. Research and policy on GPP in the construction sector has not received as much attention as products and services [48; 49], but interest has increased in recent years. [PERSON] et al. [50] carried out a study on public procurement of construction works in Sweden based on a survey (they obtained 48 responses from 62 questionnaires sent) and subsequent interviews. Among the results they obtained, the most commonly used criterion was the possession of an environmental management system (EMS). Other criteria used were environmental knowledge of the organisation and management of environmental aspects, which are described in the environmental plan. In the building subsector, the type of machinery (air conditioning) and the energy that the building will use in its final activity have also been used as environmental criteria. The maximum weight of environmental criteria in these procedures was 10%. In a study on GPP in Italy, [PERSON] et al. [19] concluded that 19% of public procurement used environmental specifications among the award criteria, the most frequent being energy efficiency. However, when the analysis was restricted to the economically most advantageous tenders (EMAT), this percentage amounted to 87% with an average weight of 18%. The authors found no correlation between the size of the public authority and the greenness of the offers. In a study on environmental criteria in Spanish public works, [PERSON] et al. [20] analysed a sample of 100 projects tendered between 2008 and 2011, and found that the use of environmental criteria was around 35% with an average weight of 5.7%. The most commonly used criterion was the environmental action plan (EAP), although it lacks a clearer and more complete definition of content. In 2017, [PERSON] et al. [51] analysed environmental criteria in the public works of Spanish universities over a sample of 316 projects tendered between 2016 and 2017. Some19.2% of the tender documents used environmental criteria and the weight was 6.5 points out of 100. The most used criteria were improvements in the energy efficiency of the equipment, installations, and buildings. The use of environmental criteria for construction sector tenders in the last three studies is below the European average of 53% according to the study of [PERSON] et al. in 2012 [39] regarding GPP in the EU27. This is by far the lowest figure of all the product groups identified--although only 3% of the contracts analysed in this study can be called completely 'green' because they use all the basic environmental criteria indicated by the EU. With regard to the basic environmental criteria for the construction sector, the results of the survey showed that waste management was specifiedin40% of the contracts analysed, energy efficiency in 32%, recyclable/reusable materials in31%, water-saving facilities in 19%, and technical experience in 17%. In reference to the transcendence of EMS, there are contradictory opinions. [PERSON] et al. (2019) conducted a study in China that concluded that the possession of an EMS by a construction company was not related to different behaviour with respect to environmental specifications. However, [PERSON] et al. (2019) concluded that the possession of a certified EMS by Italian construction companies had an influence on the percentage of green tenders obtained. From a strictly legal point of view, in Spain, the possession of a certified EMS can only be used as a criterion for the technical solvency of the tenderer, and not as a criterion for the award of a contract ([PERSON] et al., 2019). The European Commission published in May 2019 a revised version of the 'GPP Training Toolkit' consisting of six independent modules and ten operational modules, with PowerPoint presentations and accompanying guidance.