## 2 Insights on Green Public Procurement
### Life Cycle Costing in Public Procurement  
LCC considers product usage, end-of-life stages and hidden costs in addition to traditional financial accounting. Those costs, occurring throughout an asset's later life and eventual disposal, are better linked with the costs, benefits and impacts connected with the initial investment. LCC advises against rejecting initiatives that, while having higher initial costs, could be accepted in the long run and result in lower costs and reduced environmental impacts. LCC is an evaluation technique, not a cost accounting technique [27]. A few studies [13; 28; 29] support the idea that GPP plays a crucial role in procurement processes by bringing the life cycle viewpoint and, therefore, LCC. GPP is not merely an environmental consideration in procurement operations. Thus, instead of being viewed as independent elements of sustainability, the environmental and economic aspects of GPP and LCC, respectively, may be combined within the context of sustainable purchasing, and the adoption of GPP can therefore encourage the inclusion of LCC in the tender evaluation process. According to [PERSON] et al. [18], [PERSON] [17] and [PERSON] (CEPS) [30], the content of GPP implementation via LCC by public bodies is rather constrained. The institutional and policy structure does not provide adequate incentives to effectively assist public entities in adopting LCC. Building on prior sustainable procurement experience, public sector organizations can investigate the prospect of creating LCC implementation procedures, although it is yet unknown which setting would be most conducive to the creation of such an integrated strategy [13]. In EU public procurement directive (2014/24/EU), LCC becomes the core for implementing green procurement without, however, becoming mandatory yet. It is also still unclear how government agencies leverage LCC tools in their green procurement commitment and until today, the European Commission only occasionally announces good practices in LCC application in various areas of public administration in the Member States, such as buildings, lighting, vehicles, etc. The LCC structure is depicted in Figure 1 and includes both direct and indirect costs, which are connected to environmental externalities and are provided by the contracting authorities [30]. Direct (or internal) costs are tied to manufacturing a product (or providing a service) and paid during its life cycle. According to EU Directive 2014/24, LCC covers a part or all of the following costs during the life cycle of a product:  
* Acquisition cost, linked to purchasing cost. Although there is a distinction between _pre-acquisition cost_ items (raw materials cost, labor cost, energy cost) and _post-acquisition cost items_ (distribution cost, management cost, disposal cost), it is common practice to include only _pre-acquisition cost_ items, which usually include all costs arised in the production of a particular good, in the cost of acquiring. * Cost of use refers to the operation cost. It includes various cost elements (such as the cost of energy and water consumption, consumables, etc. ), it is linked to the consumption of energy and other resources and depends on the conditions of use of the product. The cost of use may also include the cost of cleaning the product [24]. * Maintenance cost includes the costs paid during the lifetime of the product. It relates mainly to expenditure intended to maintain or restore an element necessary for the proper functioning of the product. * End of life cost consists of costs associated with the product's end of life including recycling cost, costs of disposal, costs of waste collection, etc. Art.68 of the Directive EU/2014/24 defines indirect costs as \"costs imputed to environmental externalities linked to the product, service or works during its life cycle, provided their monetary value can be determined and verified\". Such costs may include the cost of emissions of greenhouse gases, other pollutant emissions and climate change mitigation costs.