the council,

Having regard to Article 5 b) of the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development of 14th December 1960;

Having regard to Recommendation of the Council on Improving the Environmental Performance of Government [C(96)39/FINAL];

Having regard to the Resolution of the Council on Improving the Environmental Performance of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [C(96)40/FINAL];

Having regard to the support for the use of green public procurement practices as expressed in the OECD Environmental Strategies for the First Decade of the 21st Century, which was adopted by OECD Environment Ministers and endorsed by the OECD Council at Ministerial level in May 2001;

Recognising the importance of governments in demonstrating leadership in progressing toward sustainable development;

Mindful of the commitments made by Member countries in 1992 at the UN Conference on Environment and Development to review and improve government procurement policies in order to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production;

Noting that as a means to improve the environmental performance of public procurement, public authorities in a number of Member countries apply policies and practices which seek to encourage procurement officers to purchase products and services which are less environmentally-damaging (hereafter “greener public purchasing policies”);

Noting that greener public purchasing policies constitute a significant element of product-related environmental policies adopted by some Member countries;

Noting that the scale of government purchases is such that greener public purchasing policies can contribute to the development and diffusion of products and services which are less environmentally-damaging;