Context
ASEAN’s economies have rapidly expanded, driven by domestic consumption and international trade. This growth remains largely founded on unsustainable consumption and production patterns that aggravate exploitation of resources and environmental degradation, increasing risks and vulnerabilities from a changing climate. The region’s unprecedented growth for product demand requires a shift towards sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns that constitute an essential building block of a low-carbon economy.
The Scaling SCP project aims to increase awareness and capacities to develop and strengthen sustainability information policies and tools through Green or Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) and eco-labelling. These instruments contribute directly to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while simultaneously developing ‘green’ markets and jobs for climate-friendly and less polluting products and services. Consequently, public authorities benefit through lower life-cycle-costs of purchased services and products and countries are enabled to increase their competitiveness and resource efficiency, as well as international trade, as well as by harmonising and mutually recognising eco-labels and GPP standards.
Scaling SCP builds on its predecessor projects, namely SCP4LCE and Advance SCP, and works in close collaboration with its sister project, SCP Outreach, using Thailand’s expertise to support neighboring countries, namely Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Bhutan.
Objective
The overall objective is for climate- and resource-friendly product standards and consumption patterns to contribute to resource conservation and the reduction of GHG emissions, using SPP and eco-labelling. To achieve this, the specific objectives are to:
• Build competent institutions that are better able to implement ambitious, climate- and resource-friendly criteria in the SPP and eco-labelling.
• Increase the scope of sustainable procurement by large public institutions at national and at sub-national levels, for example, city levels.
• Make available experience and knowledge documents, such as ambitious, regionally harmonised product criteria and SPP guidelines.
Approaches
The project assists Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand in the following areas:
• By supporting the ambitious setting of criteria for high-potential GHG-reducing products groups, such as ACs, data centres and construction materials, as well as upgrading criteria including circular economy and other material efficiency criteria.
• Easing information-flow and monitoring across institutions, also by introducing or upgrading e-tools, such as green marketplaces and digital monitoring.
• Piloting green budgeting and green procurement of complex products, for example buildings, and testing standard processes/guidelines, for example e-monitoring, to enable countries to develop blueprints for nation-wide roll-out.
• Recommending economic, financial or tax incentives for GPP or eco-labels to motivate greening of manufacturers, especially small and medium enterprises.
• Fostering South-South exchange, peer-to-peer learning and other forms of knowledge sharing in the ASEAN region, but also globally.
• Providing training and awareness raising to governments and eco-label certifiers on additional product criteria, also for social and economic sustainability, as well as on circular procurement, for instance through product service systems.