The Sustainable Public Procurement for Innovation and Green Growth Project, funded by the Prosperity Fund of the British government, represented by the British Embassy in Brasília, with the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management (MP) and the Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade (MDIC) as beneficiaries, and implemented by the Secretariat for South America of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability –, has as its main objective to increase the institutional capacity of the Brazilian Federal Government to implement Brazilian legislation on sustainable public procurement (Decree 7.746/2012 and IN 10/2012), as a mechanism to promote innovation and foster a green and inclusive economy.

In this context, as a result of the partnership between ICLEI and the Center for Sustainability Studies (GVces) of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV – EAESP), aimed at supporting the implementation of the Sustainable Logistics Management Plan (PLS) of the MDIC (Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade), technical studies on products (goods and services) are presented with recommendations for sustainability attributes for public procurement and contracting in order to establish favorable conditions for the rational and responsible use of public and natural resources.

The starting point for these studies is the application of the Life Cycle Thinking concept, characterized by providing a systemic view of the socio-environmental performance of a product from 'cradle to grave', that is, from the raw material extraction stage to the final disposal of the product, not considering in this case the reinsertion of this product into another production cycle. In practical terms, based on the aforementioned concept, this project will involve Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies with a specific focus on impacts related to the category of 'climate change', accounted for through the carbon footprint, a measure that quantifies the direct and indirect emissions associated with all activities in the product's life cycle. Regarding the tools, the method adopted will be the Greenhouse Gas Protocol: Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard (GHG Protocol for Products), with carbon footprint calculations performed using the Umberto NXT CO2 software, which allows for the measurement of greenhouse gas emissions from the modeling of a production process and its flow of matter and energy.

This study therefore consists of mapping and evaluating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions throughout the life cycle of the selected products, supported by the aforementioned tools, as well as a qualitative discussion, based on secondary references, on other socio-environmental impacts that allow for a broader perspective on the entire system and the integration of other socio-environmental impacts into the sustainability recommendations and attributes for public procurement, which are presented at the end of the report.

Alongside defining the study objectives, the selection of emblematic products to be analyzed was conducted, ensuring that most of them met premises based on the level of relevance of the social, environmental, financial, and volume impacts acquired by the organization. Thus, in the present context, the actions and goals pre-established in the MDIC's PLS (Strategic Planning for Development) regarding the rationalization of consumable materials were used to arrive at the selection of printed and digital documents and printing services as research focuses.