Green public procurement has not only been a recommendation of good practice for several years now; rather, it is a mandatory part of public procurement procedures for the subjects of public procurement specified in the Regulation on Green Public Procurement (the Regulation).[1] Article 4(1) of the Regulation defines 22 categories of public procurement for which consideration of environmental, sustainability, and circular economy aspects is mandatory – including the design and construction of buildings and roads. Compliance with these requirements significantly influences the content of tenders, the selection of bidders, and the legality of the procedures carried out.
Regulation: legal nature and binding framework for contracting authorities
The Regulation is a subordinate legal act that introduces the concept of green public procurement into the Slovenian legal system as one of the key operational instruments of environmental policy. Green public procurement refers to the procurement of goods, services, and construction works that, compared to conventional procurement items, have a lower environmental impact over their entire life cycle, ensure the conservation of natural resources, materials, and energy, and offer the same or better functionality (Article 1 of the Regulation).
While the ZJN-3[2] sets forth the rules for conducting public procurement procedures, the Regulation requires contracting authorities to incorporate sustainability and environmental considerations into these procedures. For the 22 categories of public procurement listed in Article 4 of the Regulation, the contracting authority no longer decides whether to incorporate sustainability considerations into the procedure; rather, it must take into account and achieve the objective or requirement specified for that category in Article 6 of the Regulation in each individual procurement.
Objective of the Regulation and scope of applicability
The objective of the Regulation is clearly stated in Article 2: to reduce the negative environmental impact of public procurement, improve the environmental characteristics of existing market offerings, promote the development of environmental innovations and the circular economy, and set an example for the private sector and consumers through responsible environmental public spending. The Regulation positions obligated entities as active market shapers—their purchasing power should steer economic operators toward solutions that are less harmful to the environment. The group of obligated entities overlaps with the group of contracting authorities under the ZJN-3 and includes state authorities, self-governing local communities, public institutions, public agencies, public funds, and other entities governed by public law.
22 categories of public procurement for which green public procurement is mandatory
Among the 22 public procurement categories listed in Article 4 of the Regulation, the following are particularly relevant to the construction sector: the design or construction of buildings (Item 12) and the design or construction of roads (Item 13). Certain more narrowly defined items are also related to the construction and infrastructure sectors, such as wall panels, building fixtures, noise barriers, and street lighting and traffic signals. For each subject of public procurement, Article 6 of the Regulation sets forth specific environmental objectives that the contracting authority must achieve during the public procurement process; for example, for buildings, the proportion of wood or wood-based materials in the building must amount to at least 30 percent of the volume of installed materials, while at the same time a nearly zero-energy level must be achieved; for roads, recycled asphalt granulate (i.e. reclaimed asphalt pavement, RAP) from old road surfaces or other sources must be used as a priority in the construction of the roadway.
Mandatory objectives and exemptions
The Regulation sets out the objectives as mandatory outcomes of individual contracts, not as recommendations. Article 6(7) does, however, allow for an exemption if circumstances or the subject matter of the contract so require. For the next contract of the same type, the contracting authority must ensure 100% of the target (or twice the target if it is less than 50%); however, this exemption does not apply at all to the targets listed in points 2, 7, 15, 16, 17, 29, 30, 34, and 35 of Article 6(2) – that is, not to the construction of buildings and roads. In these cases, the contracting authority cannot simply opt out of the scope of the Regulation, regardless of the specific circumstances of the project. The Regulation provides for a different mechanism for ensuring sustainable construction in Article 6(5): a public contract for the design of a building may also be awarded using a recognized sustainable construction certification system (e.g. DGNB, BREEAM, LEED), which replaces the standard demonstration of compliance with the target set forth in Article 6(2), point 15.
Environmental guidelines and criteria: a tool or a commitment?
To assist contracting authorities in the practical implementation of the Regulation, the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning and the Ministry of the Interior and Public Administration, in cooperation with the relevant ministries, have prepared and published Examples of Environmental Requirements and Criteria for Specific Public Procurement Items.[3]
The basis for preparing these guidelines is Article 8 of the Regulation, which stipulates that the competent ministries shall prepare “examples of environmental requirements and criteria that the contracting authority may include in the public procurement procedure.” The wording “that the contracting authority may include” indicates that this is a non-binding tool intended to assist the contracting authority in preparing tender documentation. The contracting authority may use them in their entirety or adapt them, provided that the ultimate objective of the Regulation is achieved.
Practical value of the guidelines for contracting authorities
The published examples for buildings (P12) and roads (P13) systematically cover all phases of the tendering process: conditions for participation, technical specifications, award criteria, and specific provisions of the contract for the performance of the contract. They also include sector-specific and technical content that is not regulated by general legislation but is of practical importance; for example, the formula for calculating the proportion of wood in the volume of installed materials and its integration with BIM models (ISO 16739/IFC), or the hierarchy for the use of RAP.
CE-PRINCE
The gap between the legal objectives of green public procurement and their actual application in practice is addressed by the Central Europe Green PRocurement and Innovation Network for Circular Economy (CE-PRINCE). The project is being carried out under the Interreg Central Europe program from June 2024 to November 2026 and involves ten partners from seven Central European countries, including Slovenia. Slovenia is represented in the CE-PRINCE partnership by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia through the Chamber of Construction and Building Materials Industry (GZS ZGIGM).
The project is particularly relevant because it focuses on practical issues related to incorporating circular economy and environmental requirements into public procurement: from the formulation of technical specifications, criteria, and supporting documentation, to monitoring the effects during contract implementation. This is particularly important in construction contracts, where the contracting authority must translate requirements regarding materials, the sustainability characteristics of products, and resource management into clear, verifiable, and feasible tender conditions. As part of this project, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia is conducting a series of ten professional training sessions on circular public procurement from March through June 2026, designed specifically to strengthen the knowledge of contracting authorities and economic operators in this field.
Conclusion
The Regulation on Green Public Procurement is not merely a “recommendation for sustainable conduct,” but a binding legal framework that requires contracting authorities – particularly in the construction of buildings and roads, where no exceptions are available—to achieve environmental, sustainability, and circular economy objectives. Early integration of these aspects into the project planning phase has proven to be a best practice; however, as the density of European frameworks for the green transition increases, this approach will increasingly shift from the category of best practice to that of a minimum standard of professional diligence for contracting authorities.
[1] Slo. Uredba o zelenem javnem naročanju (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 51/17, as amended).
[2] Slo. Zakon o javnem naročanju (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 91/15, as amended, ZJN-3).
[3] Available at: https://www.gov.si/teme/zeleno-javno-narocanje/.
