Sustainable procurement is no longer something discussed only at conferences or mentioned in annual reports as a modern trend. It has become part of everyday business reality. Regulations in this area are becoming increasingly stringent, customers and business partners are making greater demands, while investors and financial institutions look beyond financial indicators when making decisions.
That is why the questions we ask ourselves when making purchasing decisions are becoming increasingly important. Which product will we choose? Which supplier will we buy it from? Can it be repaired, and how long will it last? Does the supplier have the necessary certifications? How does the supplier treat its employees and subcontractors?
And perhaps the most important question of all – can we prove all of this when someone asks for the data?
Green procurement is therefore no longer just a matter of environmental protection. It is becoming a matter of how an organization selects suppliers, products, and services, while managing costs, risks, and long-term business operations.
What Is Green Procurement, and What Is Sustainable Procurement?
These terms are often used interchangeably, but they are not quite the same thing.
Green procurement primarily focuses on environmental criteria, such as choosing products that consume less energy, have a lower environmental impact, are made from recycled materials, or can be reused or recycled.
Sustainable procurement takes a broader approach. In addition to environmental considerations, it also takes social and economic criteria into account. In other words, sustainable procurement is not just about how much something costs, but also raises questions such as:
How long will the product last?
Can it be repaired?
What is it made of?
What happens to it after use?
Does the supplier have relevant certifications?
What are the working conditions like throughout its supply chain?
Does the supplier pose any business or reputational risk?
What is the true cost over the entire lifecycle of the product?
That is essentially the core of sustainable procurement – not just looking at what we buy and how much we pay, but also at the broader impact of that decision.
What Does Green Procurement Look Like in Practice?
Green procurement in practice can look different depending on what is being purchased. However, some practices are particularly common. For example, instead of buying new equipment, companies can opt for refurbished equipment; when purchasing vehicles, they can prioritize more energy-efficient models; they can look for products made from recycled materials or include energy consumption and product repairability in their procurement criteria.
A good example comes from Niort, a French city with around 59,000 inhabitants. Instead of purchasing new furniture for 350 workstations, the city administration opted to reuse and refurbish existing furniture. This helped reduce waste, achieve significant cost savings, and at the same time support local craftsmen specializing in furniture refurbishment.
The project was carried out through a four-year framework agreement, and the European Commission cites it as an example of good practice in circular public procurement. One particularly interesting figure is that the cost of a refurbished workstation was around €450, compared with around €890 for a new workstation (Source: European Commission, Green Public Procurement – From waste to workspace: Supplying reused and refurbished furniture to Niort City Hall).
Ovaj primjer dobro pokazuje da zelena nabava ne mora nužno značiti veći trošak. Ponekad je dovoljna samo promjena načina razmišljanja o tome što nam zapravo treba. Takav pristup na kraju može istovremeno donijeti i ekološke i financijske koristi.
And Where Does Croatia Stand in All of This?
In Croatia, green public procurement is gradually moving from a recommendation towards a concrete obligation.
The share of “green” contracts in total public procurement reached 13.3% in 2023, continuing the upward trend seen in previous years (Source: Green Public Procurement, Ministry of Economy).
Also, as of January 1, 2025, the Decision on the Implementation of Green Public Procurement has been in force, introducing an obligation for state administration bodies to apply green criteria to certain procurement categories (Source: Official Gazette, Decision on the Implementation of Green Public Procurement, NN 137/2024). This is an important change, as it shows the direction in which public procurement is moving.
Sustainable criteria are no longer something included in procurement documentation simply because they “sound good.” They are increasingly becoming a real part of the criteria used to evaluate bids.
The challenge arises when all of this needs to be tracked
On paper, it all sounds fairly simple. We define the criteria, send them to suppliers, collect certificates, assess suppliers, track the results, and that’s it.
And then we realize that we have 200 suppliers, several different procurement categories, dozens of certificates with expiration dates, ESG questionnaires in Excel, and supplier responses scattered across our inboxes.
This is where sustainable procurement stops being just a matter of having the right methodology and becomes a matter of data organization. It is not enough to know that a supplier had a certain certification two years ago; you need to know whether it is still valid. It is not enough to send an ESG questionnaire; you need to know who has responded, who has not, and where potential risks may exist.
And this is precisely where digitalization can make a significant difference.
Why Is Digitalization Important for Sustainable Procurement?
Sustainable procurement generates a significant amount of data – information about suppliers, certifications, ESG indicators, risk assessments, products, contracts, tender results, and more.
If all of this is managed manually, chaos can quickly set in. An Excel spreadsheet may be perfectly adequate for ten suppliers. But what happens when you have several hundred?
A digitalized process makes it possible to keep all information in one place and automate certain tasks.
For example:
The supplier receives the questionnaire without the need to send individual emails
Responses are automatically collected in the system
Results can be compared
Certifications and documents remain linked to the supplier
Expiration dates can be tracked
Suppliers with increased risk can be identified more easily
Data can be analyzed over time.
In other words, digitalization does not make procurement sustainable. But it makes sustainable procurement much easier to implement and track. .
ESG Is No Longer Just the Responsibility of the Sustainability Team
Another important change is taking place in the relationship between procurement and ESG. Much of the data needed for sustainability reporting is not generated within the company itself, but comes from suppliers.
Procurement is becoming the place where much of the data needed to understand supply chain risks and sustainability is collected. And once you start collecting all that data, you quickly arrive at the next question: Where will we keep it all, and how will we track it?
What Do ESG and CSRD Mean for Suppliers?
The CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) has further increased pressure on companies to have higher-quality and more reliable sustainability data.
Although the scope and implementation timelines have since changed through new European regulations, one thing is particularly important for procurement: data from the supply chain are becoming increasingly important.
If you are a supplier to a large company, you can expect more and more questions about your business – from emissions and resource use to working conditions, certifications, and other ESG indicators. If you are a buyer, you need a way to collect and manage this data.
How Can Ensolva Help?
This is where sustainable procurement becomes very tangible. Ensolva enables supplier data and assessments to be managed within a single system, alongside other procurement processes.
SAQ Questionnaire – Fewer Emails, More Control
One of the tools for this is the SAQ (Supplier Audit Questionnaire), which is used to assess suppliers.
Instead of sending an Excel spreadsheet to each supplier, waiting for responses, reminding those who have not responded, and then manually transferring everything into your records, the process can be managed in a structured way through the system. Questions can be tailored to the organization’s needs, the procurement category, or the supplier’s risk level. Once suppliers submit their responses, you get a structured overview of the results.
You can see who has responded, where there are discrepancies, and which suppliers require additional attention. Perhaps most importantly, the data does not disappear after a single assessment. You can track how a supplier changes over time and compare their results with previous assessments.
Instead of searching through your inbox for information whenever you need it, it becomes part of the system you use to manage your suppliers on a daily basis.
How to Get Started with Sustainable Procurement?
You don’t have to change everything overnight. In fact, you probably shouldn’t. To start, you can take a few concrete steps.
1. Take a Look at What You’re Currently Purchasing
You don’t need to analyze every product and every supplier right away. Start with the categories where the greatest financial, environmental, or supplier-related risks exist.
2. Define What “Sustainable” Means for Your Organization
Sustainability does not mean the same thing for every organization. In some cases, energy efficiency will be the top priority; in others, it may be recycled materials, working conditions, or reducing emissions. The key is to ensure that the criteria are clear and measurable.
3. Include Sustainability Criteria from the Start of the Procurement Process
Don’t wait until the supplier has already been selected to think about sustainability. If a particular certification, production method, or environmental criterion is important, define it upfront in the tender documentation and evaluation criteria.
4. Get to Know Your Suppliers
Do you know which of your suppliers have relevant certifications? Which ones pose a higher risk? Who has provided the requested data, and who hasn’t? If you don’t have answers to these questions, it is difficult to effectively manage your supply chain.
5. Track the Results
Setting criteria is only the beginning. You need to track whether they are being met, how supplier performance changes over time, and where problems arise. This is precisely where digital tools can save the most time.
Conclusion
Green procurement does not mean that, starting tomorrow, you have to buy everything more expensively, choose “greener” options, and collect ten new certifications. It is about something much simpler: looking at the bigger picture when making a procurement decision.
Not just how much something costs, but how long it will last. Not just who offers the lowest price, but what kind of supplier they are. Not just what is stated in the tender documentation, but whether we can prove that what we asked for is actually being implemented. As the amount of data grows, so does the need for a reliable system.
Digitalization is therefore not the goal of sustainable procurement. It is a tool that enables sustainability to move beyond a collection of individual initiatives and become part of the everyday procurement process.
Because sustainable procurement is not just about what we buy. It is about how we make procurement decisions.
