Law on Promoting Green Purchasing (Law Concerning the Promotion of Procurement of Eco-friendly Goods and Services by the State and Other Entities)

The Law on Promoting Green Purchasing and associated Basic Policy on Promoting Green Purchasing aims to promote the purchase of equipment with lower environmental impacts by government and public ogranisations, in order to create a priming effect and promote the shift in demand towards eco-friendly goods in Japan as a whole.

Each fiscal year, government institutions are required to formulate a green purchasing policy, taking its budget and planned projects into consideration. In addition to price and quality factors, procurement decisions include consideration for environmental factors, including global warming, air pollution, waste, and biodiversity.

The Basic Policy includes specific items and evaluation criteria, including:

paper: copy, print, toilet and tissue
stationary: pencils, pens, notebooks, etc.
office furniture: chairs, desks, shelves, whiteboards, etc.
office machines and printers: copiers, multi-function devices, printers, scanners, etc.
computers and monitors, mobile telephones, etc.
appliances
lighting
passenger and freight vehicles, including buses
A full list of products and their criteria are available here: http://www.env.go.jp/en/laws/policy/green/2.pdf

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