Since 2017, the contracting stations have been obliged to include the Minimum Environmental Criteria in the procurement or rental bids for public administrations.
We remind you that the
Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM) are the environmental requirements defined for the various phases of the purchase process aimed at identifying the design solution, taking into account the availability of the market, the best product or service from an environmental point of view along its entire life cycle.
In the premises of the Decree, consistent with the principles of the
European GPP (Green Public Procurement), it is reiterated that the use of these CAMs by the contracting authorities allows to reduce the environmental impacts considered in a life cycle perspective. Of course, these criteria do not completely replace those ones normally included in a technical specification, but they complement them, as they refer to the environmental requirements that the furnishings must meet, and they add to the prescriptions and performances already in use or required by the standards.
On the occasion of some web meetings with institutions and laboratories, the Italian Ministry of the Environment has already shared
the new version of the CAM relating to the supply and rental service of interior furnishings for the public administrations which will be published in the Italian Official Gazette as soon as the approval process is completed.
The updates derive from the removal of some criteria or parts of them or from criteria that in the previous version were rewarding and now become basic – mandatory. This new version of course also maintains the format in which, in order to facilitate the verification activity by both the supplier and the contracting authorities on compliance with the required environmental characteristics, at the bottom of each criterion, the "verification" is indicated which reports both the information and the documentation to be attached when participating in the tender.
Often CATAS has had to face situations in which, compared to the mandatory introduction of the Minimum Environmental Criteria, difficulties are faced that affect all the subjects involved: the contracting authorities that must be put in the position to understand and verify the certifications produced in tender venue and companies that have to deal with technically complex legislation, often judged oversized, and that have to produce the adequate documentation.
In addition to performing specific tests for the punctual satisfaction of the requirements, both minimum and rewarding, CATAS is able to support companies in the wood furniture sector in order to minimize problems both related to the interpretation of the technical regulations which to the management of the documentation to be produced.
To try to fill partially this situation of necessity CATAS is available, for the items that the companies decide to have verified for the purpose of compliance with the CAM requirements, to insert directly inside to the test reports, upon request, a sentence with a specific function of
"certification of compliance ".For information:Daniele Bergamasco
+39 0432 747249
bergamasco@catas.comMarco Righini
+30 0432 747258
righini@catas.com
