The newly launched toolkit is a core part of the Commission’s strategy for promoting Green Public Procurement (GPP) across Europe within its sustainable production and consumption strategy

'The Greening of Public Procurement is a major challenge for Europe's public administrations, but also a major opportunity to boost Europe's competitiveness and stimulate the market for environmental technologies.' according to European Commissioner Stavros Dimas.

The toolkit prepared by ICLEI consists of three independent modules, each designed to overcome a specific problem identified as a barrier to the uptake of GPP within a public organisation:

1. A strategic module which seeks to raise the political support for green public procurement within an organisation, targeting in particular decision makers.
2. A legal module which seeks to clarify legal issues and is designed for both - strategic and operational levels.
3. An operational module aimed at purchasing officers, responsible for the preparation of tender documents; includes concrete examples of environmental criteria for 11 product and service groups, for use in public tendering procedures. These are: paper, cleaning products, office machinery, construction, transport, furniture, electricity, food and catering services, textiles, gardening services and equipment used in the health sector.