Public tender
A third-party-verified biodiversity criterion in public tenders
An opposable biodiversity criterion in a tender requires verification by an independent accredited third party. IRICE provides this, separately from any advisory work.
A biodiversity criterion verified by a third party
Embedding an opposable biodiversity criterion in a public tender requires it to be verified by an independent accredited third party: the buyer cannot rely on the designer's self-assessment. IRICE, accredited by Cofrac (no. 5-0655, ISO/IEC 17065), provides this role.
This independence is not a comfort, it is a structural requirement of the tender. It prevents the party that designs or advises from also being the one that evaluates, which is where the value of third-party accredited verification lies.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Drafting
A criterion that cannot be verified cannot be scored.
From 2026, environmental considerations must appear in the award criteria of public contracts. The drafting difficulty is real: a criterion rewarding a self-declared commitment rewards whoever writes the best prose, and it is vulnerable to challenge precisely because it does not discriminate on anything objective.
A criterion resting on third-party-verified performance discriminates on something a bidder either holds or does not. It is simpler to score, easier to defend, and it aligns the tender with what the landlord is actually trying to buy.
Proportionality
The criterion must not close the market.
A requirement so specific that only one bidder can meet it is challengeable on competition grounds. The usual safeguard is to reward a verified outcome rather than a named scheme, and to allow equivalent evidence, which requires deciding in advance what equivalence means.
That decision is easier when the underlying performance is defined by an accredited scheme, because the scheme itself states what is assessed and how.
Going further
Related pages.
This question connects to these pages.
- Environmental clauses in public procurement — the obligation
- Effinature biodiversity certification — a verifiable outcome
- IRICE, Cofrac-accredited certification body — what accreditation adds
- EU Directive 2024/825 — the same substantiation logic
- Documenting estate biodiversity — reusing the same data
- Ecological expertise — the assessment behind the criterion
- Working with social housing landlords — the wider engagement
- Working with local authorities — the same drafting question
- ESRS E4: biodiversity — where the same evidence is reused
- Four-season surveys — the assessment behind a criterion
- Certification — what accreditation guarantees
- Environmental project management for landlords — drafting support
- Securing environmental claims — the bidder-side obligation
Secure a biodiversity criterion in a tender
Third-party verification is provided by IRICE.
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