Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) is about ensuring that the products and services purchased by governments are as sustainable as possible, both in the sense of generating the lowest possible environmental impact, and in the sense of producing the most positive social impacts. By redesigning procurement policies and procedures, governments can trigger multiplier benefits internally and across society, creating efficiency gains, energy and financial savings, improved access to services and better working conditions. SPP can serve as a key policy driver allowing governments to use their purchasing power and regulatory influence to reshape markets. 

This handbook is a tool for implementing SPP in the Latin American and Caribbean region, developed in cooperation with the Inter-American Network for Government Procurement (INGP). The INGP is a network of directors of public procurement authorities from 34 countries in the Americas, working to raise awareness, build capacity and generate knowledge on the relevance of SPP to policy makers. Ultimately, this handbook is an effort to make public procurement a catalyst for inclusive green growth. 

This handbook will guide government procurers on the design of procurement policies and preferential purchasing programs that will crowd-in SMEs, minority suppliers and women-owned enterprises. It will integrate environmental and social criteria across the public procurement cycle, from supplier qualification to technical specifications, award criteria and contract conditions.