Examples of Sustainable/Green Public Procurement in Bangladesh

There is a limited number of notable best practices/examples/existing pilots related to sustainable/green public procurement in the Bangladesh.

Some of the examples are as follows:

Construction of 2041 Smart Tower: Construction of LEED Certified Green Building under PRIDE Project of World Bank in the Kawran Bazar, Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is a public building for developing business in Information Technology named as “Software Technology Park” ever a first building in Bangladesh of Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority (BHTPA: www.bhtpa.gov.bd) under the Information and Communication Technology Division, Ministry of Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology. It is noted that Bangladesh has no such organization and has to depend on foreign organization like USGBC for LEED certification for construction of infrastructures.

Building Green Factories: One hundred seventy-three (173) green factories have been built in Bangladesh accredited by the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Bangladesh currently leads the globe in the RMG industry’s progress towards being green. With the United States Green Building Council’s and Leadership in Environmental and Energy in Design (LEED) certification, today Bangladesh has the most environmentally friendly garment manufacturers worldwide (USGBC 2023). The largest green factories in the world, 171 are in Bangladesh’s readymade garment (RMG) industry. According to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the country now has 50 platinum green factories, 101 gold, 10 silver and another 4 LEED certified factory buildings. More than 500 garment factories are waiting for the LEED certification from the USGBC. (Source: BGMEA 2023).

Use of Solar Energy in Crop Production: Bangladesh is heavily investing in distributed systems through the world’s largest off-grid solar power program, the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development (RERED) Project. Since 2003, this solar home systems program has electrified areas that are home to over 20 million people across the country. The project is viewed by experts as an
excellent case study on rural electrification. However, rural communities generally have significantly lower energy demands than urban centers that are industrial hubs. For this reason, solar energy capacity in the country remains a small fraction of total power production.

Green Banking: Bangladesh Bank’s green activities are concentrated in terms of inhouse and other than in-house activities. The word ‘in-house activity’ refers to domestic or activities limited to the office building related to network expansion, office automation and daily green operation etc. Under the networking program, all the departments of Bangladesh Bank head office and its nine branch offices have already been brought under a computer network (LAN/WAN), connecting almost 3,100 PCs as of March 31, 2012. Banks have been brought under the purview of E-Commerce with a view to providing the customers with online-banking facilities covering payments of utility bills, money transfer, and transactions in local currency through internet.

Organic Production in Agriculture: Organic Farming is basically the type of farming where crops are produced in an environmentally friendly and economically viable manner. The popularity of organic food products and organic farming is constantly increasing around the world. Even in 2010, where the global organic food market was only $1 billion dollars, by 2020 it has become a market of about $200 billion. For the last few years, the demand for organic food products has been increasing too as the demand for organic food is increasing globally. So far it has been possible to convert 1,162 hectares of land into organic farmland which is only 0.01 percent of the potential land. Although the adoption of organic farming in Bangladesh is slow, the country has already developed several e-commerce businesses dealing with fresh and authentic food products. In Bangladesh there is a facility in the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) to measure the % of toxic materials in food. But GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) are widely using in Bangladesh for export of agricultural products. There is a GAP protocol for each products. The exporter strongly monitor the protocol during production period for exporting agricultural products in EU/other countries as per their requirements.

Circular Economy in RMG Sector: The unused pieces of cloths (Jhut Cloths) in garment are converting into cotton and preparing warm cloths (called Shall) in some areas of Bangladesh (Bogra District). It is certainly a good practice and example of circular economy.

Source: DETAILED ASSESSMENT OF SUSTAINABLE/GREEN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT IN BANGLADESH under The SWITCH-Asia Programme