DOI: 10.22982/NEXTRP.2023.10.16 

 Overview  

 - This study diagnoses the current status of Korea's green public procurement system and its limitations in terms of climate change mitigation, and suggests improvement measures to create low-carbon demand for high-emission building materials such as cement and steel. 

 - (Problems with the Green Public Procurement System) The green public procurement systems related to building materials procurement include the 'Mandatory Green Product Purchase Program', 'Minimum Green Purchasing Standard' (MGS), and 'Green Building Certification Program' (G-SEED). 1) The current low-carbon product certification standards set minimum carbon reduction rates that do not reflect NDC goals, 2) Due to the maximum carbon emission allowance for each product that does not reflect the latest Best Available Technology (BAT), low-carbon certified products are often not actually low-carbon products, so government expenditures do not lead to the purchase of truly low-carbon materials. 

 - (Recommendation) By abolishing the minimum carbon reduction rate standard of the low-carbon product certification system and setting a maximum allowable emission rate standard for each product reflecting the BAT, only products below the maximum allowable emission rate can enter the procurement market, it was found that GHG reductions of 27.5% in cement procurement and 38% in steel procurement were possible.  

 - (Implications) It is estimated that the improvement of the green public procurement system proposed in this study can reduce GHG emissions by about 30% in the industrial sector, which is 11.4% higher than the revised industrial sector NDC of 2023 compared to 2018. 

 - (Problems of Green Building Certification Program) In the case of the green building certification system, there is a limitation that the environmental impact of individual building materials is not properly reflected in green building certification due to the lack of linkage between the life cycle assessment (LCA) results of individual building materials and building LCA.  

 - (Recommendation) This study proposes an integrated building LCA model as an alternative so that the LCA results of individual building materials can be systematically reflected in the building LCA. By using the integrated building LCA model, the owner can predict the impact of individual building materials on the overall environmental impact of the building based on the evaluation results at the building component level, which can contribute to reducing the environmental load of the building. In addition, by establishing individual LCI DB (Life Cycle Inventory Database) for major building materials, it can contribute to the optimal evaluation of the environmental performance of buildings according to major building elements.  

 - (Policy Suggestions) The policy issues that need to be preceded for the establishment and operation of a green public procurement system to achieve a national carbon neutrality scenario are as follows.  

 - Submission of Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) results should be mandatory for public procurement bids to verify the embedded carbon of products entering the public procurement market.  

 - The reorganization of national LCI DBs and the development of product-specific LCI DBs in line with international standards are required for accurate carbon footprint calculation.   

 - For the decarbonization of cement and steel products at the maximum allowable carbon emission level proposed in this study, the relevant Korean Industrial Standards (KS) should be revised.

< Contents > 

I. Introduction 

II. Building materials procurement in the South Korean public sector

 1. Cement and concrete used in public construction and associated CO2 emissions

 2. Steel used in public construction and associated CO2 emissions

III. South Korea's GPP system

 1. Overview

 2. Low-carbon product certification

 3. Limitations of low-carbon product certification schemes: Lack of low-carbon criteria

 4. Limitations of G-SEED: Lack of linkage between LCA of building materials and LCA of building

Ⅳ. Policy suggestions

 1. Strengthened low-carbon product certification criteria: To strengthen the maximum allowable carbon 

emissions standards and eliminate minimum carbon reduction rate criteria

 2. Strengthening the LCA linkage of green building certification system

Ⅴ. Expected impacts

 1. Reducing carbon emissions in cement procurement

 2. Reducing carbon emissions in steel procurement

 3. Reduced building GWP with integrated LCA

Ⅵ. Conclusions and implications

References