Use of E-catalogues in Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP)

This pre-study attempts to summarise existing definitions, where they exist, of e-catalogues as developed by key actors in the definition of public procurement practices and present these alongside existing international examples of e-catalogue use in practice. From this, three general approaches have been identified: ‘central e-catalogues’, ‘e-marketplaces’, and ‘single contract e-catalogues’. Although ‘central e-catalogues’ offer the greatest potential for streamlining SPP and increasing access to sustainable products and services, they also require a supportive institutional and legal framework. Therefore, e-marketplaces and single contract e-catalogues are also included in this pre-study, as they offer more flexible opportunities which can be adopted in a wider range ofcontexts.

As a pre-study, this report does not attempt to provide guidance on implementing e-catalogues or e-marketplaces, but rather provides a starting point for future work, including the definition of some general principles along with some initial recommendations on increasing knowledge of and uptake of e-catalogues in a project context