Purchasing is a serious business

EUR 93 million
This is how much the public sector can save on its electricity bill by purchasing energy efficiently. The method is to specify user requirements before electrically powered products appear in the shopping baskets of the municipalities. For example, a notebook computer should only use 14 watt when switched on and 1 watt in standby. The requirements are clearly laid out in the 2008 Guidelines. This makes it easy for purchasers to ask suppliers to comply with the specifications. Alternatively these can be appended to individual product requirements, for example when sending out tenders.

The Guidelines also provide a benchmark for the purchase of different products – for example, advising those responsible for purchasing to choose notebook computers, which typically use half as much power as desktop equivalents.

Money and responsibility
And it’s not simply for fun that those responsible for purchasing will be leafing through the pages of the Guidelines, because the requirements are actually included in the voluntary agreement on energy savings concluded by the Danish municipalities with the then Minister of Transport and Energy in autumn 2007.

The municipalities are therefore following the lead of government institutions which already have to comply with the purchasing requirements in the Guidelines on the basis of the 2005 Circular on improving energy efficiency in government institutions.

Maximising the benefits of the agreement
‘The Trust recommends that all public sector institutions and private companies follow the Guidelines when purchasing products. Public sector institutions will thus automatically fulfil the requirements laid down in the voluntary agreement and the government’s circular. Purchasers will also be saving their organisations very large sums of money,’ says Christian Jarby, Manager for Public Sector Affairs at the Trust.

Initially, the Trust’s requirements for energy efficiency are capable of being fulfilled by around 20% of the products on the market. Energy efficient products normally cost the same price, but if they are more expensive, the difference will be quickly recouped. This is the main reason why purchasers in the public sector are already using the Purchasing Guidelines to set requirements and targets for their purchasing activities.

Setting purchasing requirements
‘We have incorporated the 2007 Purchasing Guidelines into our partnership agreement with the Danish Environmental Protection Agency on green purchasing. We have also tightened up our requirements for computers and monitors in line with the Trust’s Guidelines,’ says Annette Bjørn, Head of Purchasing in the Municipality of Odense. ‘We will be including the relevant requirements in the Guidelines when drawing up tenders for large domestic appliances later this autumn. We have the Guidelines in focus in 2008,’ she adds.

Martin Larsen, the consultant responsible for purchasing and tenders in the municipality of Haderslev in south-west Jutland is also looking forward to receiving the Purchasing Guidelines. ‘We are about to revise our purchasing policy, and we will be factoring in the Trust’s 2008 Guidelines.’

Read the Trust’s 2008 Purchasing Guidelines

Facts: Agreement on energy savings
The Danish municipalities account for almost 75% of the total electricity consumption in the public sector. On 17 October 2007 the then Minister of Transport and Energy concluded an agreement with Local Government Denmark (KL) for achieving energy savings in the municipalities. The agreement means that the municipalities have a duty to:

• Implement systematic energy management.
• Purchase energy efficient A, A+ or A++ labelled products recommended on the Trust’s website and/or fulfil the requirements in the Trust’s Purchasing Guidelines.
• Carry out financially viable energy saving projects recommended by the energy labelling of buildings with a payback period within 5 years.
• Achieve energy savings within 5 years after energy labelling.
• Ensure that a municipality’s buildings are managed, maintained and extended in an energy efficient manner.
• Ensure that new technical installations and plant are energy efficient, and are fitted with meters for registering significant secondary consumption of electricity, water and heat.

Facts: The Trust’s 2008 Purchasing Guidelines
The Guidelines feature new requirements covering the following products:

• External power supplies
• Broadband equipment (modems, hubs, switches, etc.)
• Set-top boxes for viewing digital TV on a conventional analogue TV
• TV, where there are now requirements covering electricity consumption in the On mode
• UPS (power protection for servers)
• Equipment for controlling lighting systems

The purchasing requirements for other products are unchanged in relation to 2007, but there is new advice on purchasing and operating equipment.

The main product categories are:

• IT and office equipment
• Consumer electronics
• Network equipment and servers
• Lighting
• Ventilation
• Circulator pumps
• Motors
• Large appliances
• Water coolers
• Food and drink vending machines

For products that are not covered by the requirements in the Purchasing Guidelines, the Trust recommends that purchasers ask about the power consumption in the On and Standby mode, and choose from products with the lowest consumption. Standby should not exceed 1 watt.

Facts: Background to the Guidelines
The Trust has based its guidelines for energy efficient purchasing on a number of international energy labelling schemes, including:

• Compulsory EU energy labelling scheme
• Energy Star: EU Energy Star, Energy Star
• GEEA (Group for Energy Efficient Appliances)*
• EU Code of Conduct
• CEMEX (European Committee of Manufacturers of Electrical Machines and Power Electronics)
• Europump

* Although GEEA no longer exists, the Trust has used the requirements established by GEEA in 2007 on the basis that it considers the requirements to be still relevant.