A Task Force on Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) comprising of members from Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Ministry of Railways (MoR), Government e-Marketplace (GeM), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) constituted by the Department of Expenditure (DoE) in April 2018.The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has supported the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to conduct studies for product prioritization and market assessment. MAITREE supported UNEP with the development of Sustainable Public Procurement Framework and recommendations for Room Air Conditioners.

The SPP procurement framework looked at manufacturing – use – end of life sustainable criteria pertaining to energy consumption, waste management, noise control, environment management, labour wellbeing etc., lifecycle assessment for each stage, and moves on to evaluating products based on their total cost of ownership (TCO) in place of upfront cost.

The expert consultation meeting held on January 7, 2021 provided insights from the industry towards finalization of the SPP specifications and roll out of green room air conditioners. It saw wholehearted participation from 47 members representing government organisations such as the Ministry of Finance, GeM, EESL, BEE & BIS, technical experts from EDS, Ozone Cell, CLASP, and from air conditioning industry namely, Carrier, Hitachi, Bluestar, Godrej, Voltas, Daikin, Mitsubishi, ETA General, LG, Samsung, CEAMA etc. The sustainable public procurement framework received a wide acceptance from the industry. The participants stated that sustainable public procurement is instrumental for market transformation towards an efficient and greener cooling industry. This process of developing sustainable public procurement specifications through engagement with government, technical experts and manufacturers in India shall serve as an exemplary example for other countries to develop their own SPP programs, bringing about market transformation; and addressing global environmental concern.