PUBLIC PROCUREMENT NEWS

  

News

25 October 2018

Make ICT Fair: Live Market Engagement connects buyers and suppliers for fair ICT

Universities, hospitals, cities, and other public bodies in the European Union (EU) together procured electronic devices such as desktop or laptop computers, servers or smart phones for about €50.3 billion in 2011 – this spending power can be put to good use. By working together, public buyers can shape the market by requiring corporations to implement social and environmental standards, and monitor their progress.

To achieve this, a live market engagement event, which took place this October (in Nijmegen, the Netherlands), back-to-back to the EcoProcura conference, brought together suppliers and public procurers to discuss social responsibility in ICT supply chains for information and communication technologies (ICT). Public authorities from across Europe took the chance to inform suppliers of ICT of their procurement needs and plans, in terms of social responsibility, possibly for upcoming tenders. For suppliers the event offered the chance to present available solutions and to demonstrate their capacity to meet the requirements.

The event was held as part of the Make ICT Fair project, a collaboration between 11 partners from public bodies and the civil society, which leverages the power of public procurement to create change and improve lives in electronic industry supply chains. The project conducts research, runs awareness raising campaigns and develops guidelines and criteria for public authorities to use in their ICT tender processes.

This first live market engagement event is one of many more to come, responding to interest from both suppliers and procurers to engage in dialogue to affect change. If you are interested in the topic of fair ICT supply chains and procurement, there are many opportunities to get involved:

-          be part of the discussion online using the #MakeICTFair

-          read more about social sustainability in ICT here

-          stay tuned for upcoming events as part of this project.

In case you’d like to participate, consider joining the SRPP Procura+ Interest Group.

Presentations and results from Live Market Engagement event on 3 October in Nijmegen:

Agenda

Presentations:

Introductions - ICLEI | Electronics Watch

From Public Authorities - Aalborg | Advanced Procurement of Universities and Colleges Scottland | Barcelona | Haarlem | Partnership for IT-Procurement in French-speaking SwitzerlandShared Service Organisation Noord & DUO

From Suppliers - Circular Computing | Dell | HP