Minimum Environmental Criteria and Climate Issue in the Metropolitan Urban Ecosystem

In Italy, the adoption of the Minimum Environmental Criteria (MEC) is associated with Legislative Decree 50/2016, which regulates public tenders. The main objective of the MECs is to promote the purchase of sustainable goods and services thus contributing to the reduction of the environmental impact and the protection of natural resources. Furthermore, the adoption of MEC by public authorities represents a strategic choice to promote the circular economy, reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions, thus preserving the quality of environmental matrices. MECs, although they are innovative tools, are however lacking in geo- graphic information related to context analysis. In this synthetic framework, the objective of this work is to evaluate a set of contextual environmental indicators to support the MECs. In fact, the knowledge and representation of the context constitutes a fundamental action for recognizing local problems, which are also useful for understanding global issues. Furthermore, how can MECs contribute to adaptation to climate change within the relative territorial context? This question guided the manuscript and the metropolitan city of Cagliari represents the case study.