Public procurement plays a decisive role in promoting fair and sustainable supply chains in the natural stone industry. Cities, municipalities, and other public bodies together represent enormous purchasing power: in Germany alone, public authorities spend around €500 billion annually on goods and services – close to 20 percent of GDP. The way this money is spent sets standards, shapes markets, and serves as an important role model for private sector buyers and consumers. Since 2009, German municipalities have been legally enabled to include social and environmental criteria in their procurement decisions alongside economic ones. More and more cities are making use of this opportunity.
In practice, tenders still too often accept voluntary self-declarations or in-house labels from private companies. These cannot be independently verified and often provide little transparency on actual production conditions. Similarly, one-time audit reports often only look at the processing factory but fail to cover the quarry.
The Fair Stone standard and Association is independently verified and has been positively assessed by Siegelklarheit /The International Trade Centre (ITC). This external evaluation confirms our credibility and distinguishes us from private labels or declarations without independent oversight.
Fair Stone is also actively involved in pilot projects that test and implement fair procurement in practice. One example is the Berlin Mehringplatz (and Kreuzberg) project, where Fair Stone supported the integration of social standards into the tender and monitoring process. Experiences from such projects help municipalities translate policy goals into real, on-the-ground impact. Investing in fair and safe production conditions requires additional effort and costs for our partners in producing countries. Municipalities can make a decisive contribution by recognizing this and being willing to pay fair prices in the construction sector.
In the long run, sustainable procurement is only possible if importers and producers are not left alone to bear these costs. The Fair Stone team maintains close dialogue with municipalities, offering information sessions, guidance, and practical support for integrating social criteria into public procurement. We would be pleased to assist your city or municipality in developing sustainable procurement practices – and in setting an example for others to follow. In addition, several documents on sustainable public procurement of natural stone can be found in the download area.
