In recent years a significant number of OECD Member countries have introduced initiatives to reduce the environmentally damaging effects of public procurement. Through various policies and programmes environmental criteria are being applied to purchasing decisions. For example, in many countries purchasing guidelines require that particular products contain a minimum amount of recycled content or achieve specified levels of energy efficiency. In other cases, procurement officers are being provided with detailed information on the environmental impacts of the goods and services that they purchase, in the hope that this will influence their procurement decisions...