The European Commission has sent bodies in the public sector including ministries, schools and hospitals a recommendation in which it invites administrations to purchase environmentally-friendly materials. The document is a kind of manual that contains a list of ecological products whose consumption contributes to the reduction of pollution, energy saving and the diffusion of the culture of recycling. The EU Executive has calculated that if adopted on a large scale so-called “green spending” in the public sector would yield a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions of over 60 million tons (equivalent to a fifth of the overall reduction of carbon dioxide established by the Kyoto Protocol down to 2012). Brussels intends to promote the use of the manual also to lower the price of ecological products, which are expensive because little known and little marketed.
