Why buying and adopting green innovations is challenging?
New environmental technologies are an innovative green offer competitive to conventional technologies as they demonstrate higher performance levels or alternative, more effective but not standardized ways to address an environmental problem. Therefore, their purchase may seem riskier to technology buyers.
ETV helps bridge the feasibility and industry confidence thresholds of green innovations for both investment as well as operational and environmental performance risks.
Challenges of buying green innovations Cost considerations
- What is the green innovation about ?
- Will it solve effectively my environmental challenge?
- How will it improve my environmental performance or create a new business opportunity?
- Is it compatible with my operational environment ?
- Does it comply with legal regulations?
- Is there any credible evidence proving its performance?
ETV helps address these challenges
ETV: a trusted compass
for guiding purchase decisions
ETV Statements provide information relevant for public and private buyers
Disover how ETV may help choose & buy performing green innovations
Learn 10 ways how buyers can leverage ETV
- Evaluate performance claims and avoid greenwashing
ETV Statements help technology buyers assess the veracity of performance claims made by technology sellers. Independent performance verification adds credibility to the performance claims, providing buyers with confidence in the stated benefits. - Mitigate purchase risks
Technology buyers can use ETV Statements to mitigate the technical risk associated with adopting new technologies especially when considering retrofitting of existing infrastructure or development of new installations. The independent verification process offers assurance that the technology’s performance declared for the intended application has been objectively assessed, reducing the uncertainty whether the technology will work as claimed in their operational environment with an effect satisfying the expectations of the users and other interested parties (e.g. funding or permitting/regulatory bodies) - Make informed decisions
ETV Statements provide buyers with detailed information on the technical/functional performance of an environmental technology, allowing for more informed decision-making. Buyers can consider verified data alongside other factors e.g. environmental criteria when selecting technologies that will help them align with their sustainability goals or environmental compliance targets related to e.g. ESG or green taxonomy requirements. - Compare and benchmark available options
ETV enables technology buyers to conduct comparative analyses of different technologies within the same category. Buyers can compare the performance metrics of various options, helping them choose the most sustainable solution for their needs. - Check compliance with Environmental Standards
ETV can assist technology buyers in ensuring that the technologies they are considering and their application complies with environmental standards and regulations. This is particularly important for industries where adherence to specific environmental criteria is required.
- Credibility and transparency in communicating improvements of environmental performance
Reference to an ETV statement of a purchased technology in your ESG report or a financing application file increases confidence in the information and claims abut the environmental performance of your operations when communicating towards investors, issuers and other stakeholders. - Build supplier relationships
Encourage technology suppliers to undergo ETV as part of the procurement process. This not only demonstrates the supplier’s commitment to transparency but also fosters a relationship based on shared values of environmental responsibility. These relationships could be strengthened by using ETV to develop mutually recognised testing protocols to serve as a basis for performance verification. - Facilitate Green Procurement Policies
ETV supports the development and implementation of green procurement policies. Buyers can use ETV Statements that hold the status of inspection bodies certificates and the verified technology performance data to ensure that their procurement decisions align with technical and environmental performance requirements, sustainability objectives and comply with internal policies. - Negotiation and Contracting
ETV can be used as a basis for negotiation and contractual agreements. Buyers can leverage verified technology performance data to negotiate terms and ensure that suppliers are held accountable for meeting declared performance and sustainability criteria. - Encourage development of performance based standards and mutually recognised testing protocols
Technology buyers can encourage development of mutually recognised testing protocols for specific types of technologies focusing on performance parameters and methods of their testing relevant for them and other interested parties. This collective effort can contribute to the establishment and adherence to new performance based standards and practices within the industry encouraging adoption of new environmental technologies.
Public buyers:
What can be purchased and how with the support of ETV?
ETV is primarily intended for use in B2B rather than B2C relations so the nature of the purchase which ETV may support is less focused on typical consumption goods and services.
ETV may be helpful in particular for the purchases made, for example by cities or utilities offering public services of processes, products and services related to:
- water and wastewater treatment and monitoring,
- solutions helping adaptation of cities to climate change (e.g. stormwater management systems),
- solutions improving waste management as well as resource and energy recovery, energy production and energy efficiency,
- air pollution mitigation and monitoring,
- use of biobased products for green areas maintenance,
- secondary raw material based process and products for urban construction works, etc.
ETV may also support other entities, e.g. state owned enterprises following public procurement rules in purchase of new environmental technologies resulting in reduced environmental impacts of their operations or supply chains.
Feedback from Canada
Find out how ETV is used for the purchase of stormwater systems in the Quebec Province
Facilitating green decision-making and encouraging innovation in procurement with ETV
Green Public Procurement (GPP) is usually targeting for “off-the-shelf” solutions with proven performance and reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle when compared to goods, services and works with the same primary function that would otherwise be procured.
Statements of Verification provide evidence to address both: performamce and reduced environmental impact.
More about the environmental added value assessment under ETV
ETV Statements may be used to evaluate technology compliance with the technical and sustainability criteria defined in the tender, leveling the playing field for green innovations against established solutions.
ETV may prove the reduced environmental impact of products, processes and services in two ways:
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by assessing the environmental added value of a of a product, process or service,
- by verification of the performance that includes parameters reflecting the positive or less adverse impact on the environment
Public procurement of innovation or innovation procurement (IP) is defined as procurement where contracting authorities act as a launch customer of innovative goods or services which are not yet available on a large-scale commercial basis, and may include conformance testing.
Being triggered by the current environmental policy objectives, innovation procurement involving sustainability aspects is gaining growing attention and importance in delivering and accelerating market uptake of green innovations.
ETV is a strategic ally for Innovation Procurement of novel environmental technologies
Since IP includes the process of proving targeted performance of the innovation, ETV may provide:
- a framework for testing and verifying the performance of green innovations,
- a procedure to weed out underperforming options and ensuring top performers meet contract-specific targets.
Learn how ETV can aid green public procurement and innovation procurement throughout the different procurement stages
IDENTIFICATION OF CONTRACTING AUTHORITY’S NEEDS
PLANNING AND PREPARATION
TENDER EVALUATION AND CONTRACT AWARD
PERFORMANCE OF AN AWARDED CONTRACT
Green Public Procurement and Innovation Procurement
ETV Statements of Verifications may serve as a reference for the sourcing purpose
Innovation Procurement
ETV Statements of Verification may serve to:
- identify the current state of performance and environmental parameters of existing products and services,
- determine whether the performance of available technologies meets the needs of the contracting authority.
Green Public Procurement
ETV Statements of Verification may help determine:
- availability of products or services satisfying the needs of the contracting authority
- facilitate decision making on the need for concluding an Innovation Partnership if such offer does not exist on the market.
Green Public Procurement and Innovation Procurement
ETV Statements of Verification may serve as a reference for :
- definition of methods of proof and other requirements to be specified in tender documentation (incl. draft contract) relevant for:
- demonstrating compliance with the technical specifications and award criteria at the evaluation stage,
- demonstrating a proper fulfilment of the contract (achieved performance ) at the end of contract performance.
- development of technical specifications to define the required minimum environmental and technical performance parameters
- definition of award criteria including environmental criteria and their relative weighting.
Innovation Procurement
- ETV Statements of Verification may support the definition of the numerical values of the parameters in technical specifications (minimum requirements) as well as identification of other parameters relevant for technical specifications not referred to in the existing EU GPP guidance documents or procurement categories but relevant for specific needs of the contracting authority
- In the draft contract ETV Statements of verification may be indicated as an optional method of proof of the achieved performance together with a requirement that the performance data used as proof must be generated by an accredited third-party body
Green Public Procurement
- EU ETV Statements of Verification may be helpful to define technical and environmental performance criteria for the successive phases of the Innovation Partnership to set up intermediate targets and their ambition level to be attained by the partners/developed innovations;
- ETV procedure including the requirements of performance test data generation compliant to the requirements of ETV may provide an overall framework to be adopted in tender documentation (including a draft contract) for specifying a method to be applied for tender evaluation as well as verifying contract fulfilment at individual sages of the procurement.
Green Public Procurement and Innovation Procurement
- ETV Statements of Verification may facilitate offer selection processes when considered as a method of proof with the tender requirements (requires consideration at the planning and documentation development stage)
- Third-party testing according to ETV requirements may be adopted as a procedure in flexible procurement procedures including Innovation Partnership for generation of incomplete or non-reliable performance data for large scale installations/ technologies at min TRL7 to complement the tenderer selection and contract award processes (applies to)
ETV may provide basis for developing a multi-criteria analysis grid for tenders evaluation.
Innovation Procurement
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ETV procedure concerning the analysis of exiting performance test data may be applied to check reliability, completeness, relevance and sufficiency of the data to confirm the veracity of the tenderer’s claims for non-ETV verified technologies, for verified – ETV Statements apply as method of proof.
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ETV Statement of Verification may serve as a method of proof with tender requirements similarly as Ecolabel type I.
Green Public Procurement
- ETV requirements concerning quality performance test data generation may be adopted to the evaluation tenders which offer solutions both below TRL7 and above TRL7. It will allow to evaluate the veracity of the declared performance against the targets defined in the tender.
- For innovations with TRL7 and above ETV Statements of verification may apply as means of proof to these requirements and confirm the trueness of the declared performance of the offer.
Green Public Procurement and Innovation Procurement
- ETV Statement of Verification can serve the contracting authority as means of proof to confirm the proper fulfilment of a contract i.e. achievement of declared performance by the purchased technology (subject to consideration in the planning and documentation development stage)
Innovation Procurement
- ETV procedure may be implemented among other independent third party verification schemes as a requirement for the purchased environmental technology to prove a proper fulfilment of the contract, subject to inclusion of appropriate provisions in the tender documentation and draft contract at the tender planning and preparation phase.
Green Public Procurement
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For Innovation Partnership stages resulting in TRL7 or higher, testing requirements based on ETV procedure may be applied to demonstrate fulfilment of the contract performance to e.g. to reduce the number of partners by terminating individual contracts that are not resulting in the delivery of innovation performance as defined in the targets.
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Based on these requirements full ETV verification can be implemented as means of proof to demonstrate fulfilment of the contract requirements performance at the final stage of an IP.