PUBLIC PROCUREMENT NEWS

  

News

18 November 2014

Providing hands-on support for public purchasing organisations in Green Public Procurement

PRIMES is a new Intelligent Energy Europe-funded project working across six countries in Europe: Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Croatia, France and Italy. It seeks to help municipalities overcome barriers in the green public procurement (GPP) process. As many small and medium sized municipalities lack knowledge in this area, PRIMES aims to demonstrate how even the smallest purchasing organisations, by sharing and co-operating, or by working with regional energy agencies, cluster organisations or regional authorities, can achieve GPP.

Employing a 'learning by doing' process, task forces of experts will work with purchasing organisations on specific contracts to draw up tender specifications and evaluation criteria which will deliver better outcomes, such as more energy efficient products and services. The task forces will also provide expert advice on specific product groups, legal issues, and life-cycle costing. The overall aim is to build capacity and political will in similar small and medium sized purchasing organisations across Europe, creating a follow-on effect of GPP good practices, and encouraging mainstreaming of GPP into all public sector tenders.

Expert partner ICLEI will provide a package of GPP capacity building material for the task forces to deliver to their purchasing organisations. The trainings will be provided to several organisations at the same time, giving participants the chance to share knowledge and experience, while achieving a fundamental understanding of the environmental and economic benefits of GPP.

For more information, visit the PRIMES website.