Developing sustainability criteria for small electrical and electronic equipment in public procurement: a methodological framework and practical tools

Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) aims to reduce the negative environmental, social and economic impacts of government purchasing by integrating sustainability criteria into tender procedures. While Green Public Procurement (GPP) has promoted the inclusion of environmental aspects in public tenders, its practical implementation remains limited, particularly for specific product categories. In particular, the European Union (EU) has not yet defined specific criteria for the category of small electrical and electronic equipment (sEEE), despite its widespread use and contribution to electronic waste. This study addresses this gap by proposing a structured methodology for the development of SPP criteria tailored to sEEE, using personal care appliances as a case application. The six-stage approach includes: (1) identifying 116 GPP criteria from related product categories, (2) analysing 22 sub-criteria from the EU Ecolabel, (3) reviewing 47 public tenders to extract real-world procurement practices, (4) integrating and classifying 246 criteria into a unified framework, (5) formulating a final proposal of 42 consolidated SPP criteria and (6) developing two practical tools. The resulting criteria cover the full product life cycle and include both technical specifications and award criteria, each with defined thresholds or scoring scales. To support implementation, a self-assessment checklist for companies and a tender evaluation tool for public authorities are also presented. This work contributes a structured and transferable methodological basis, together with actionable tools, to strengthen sustainability in public procurement for sEEE.