The carbon footprint is an indicator that serves to measure the environmental impact of different activities, both economic and of the people involved in carrying them out.
Having this tool is key as a diagnostic element, a starting point to establish recommendations for improvement and set new objectives to meet the challenges that exist at state, European and global level on climate change, air quality or energy efficiency.
To calculate the carbon footprint, which is expressed in tons of CO2 equivalent, the direct emissions of the activity and indirect emissions must be taken into account, which, depending on the case, can cover many aspects.
There are different standards and instruments for calculating them, at European and state level, and compensation strategies implemented by the states as part of their environmental policies to promote their reduction.
In this sense, Novadays includes, within the tool it has designed to boost the circular economy in public procurement, Circular Procurement Suitethe calculation of the carbon footprint. Thus, the environmental impact of the proposals received becomes a key element of evaluation to be taken into account for public procurement and contracting processes.
Public administrations, through their actions and policies, are also responsible for meeting environmental challenges and are decisive agents in promoting a change in the mentality of companies in terms of access to tenders.
Circular Procurement Suite and this article have been elaborated in the framework of the project "Digital transformation of public procurement processes to boost Circular Public Procurement" (EXP/EC/2023/00313), which is a beneficiary of the call for grants to boost the Circular Economy in business for the year 2022 in the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU.