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29 October 2019

GPP in Malta - ICLEI's training helps with implementation

Green Public Procurement (GPP) offers a range of benefits, including cost savings and environmental improvements, so public organisations naturally want to implement GPP as a standard practice for procurement. On behalf of the European Commission, ICLEI Europe is currently conducting training for procurement practitioners in Malta, to support them in the uptake of GPP.

The Maltese Government recently passed the GPP Second National Action Plan 2019 – 2025 (NAP). The NAP focuses on enhancing green public procurement functions, highlighting opportunities to minimise the environmental footprint of purchases by the Maltese public buyers and drive markets towards greener products and services.   

The EC GPP Training, delivered across four separate sessions, provides additional perspectives and support for Malta’s procurers to achieve the aims of the NAP. During the first session on 11 June 2019, 20 procurers got together to learn about using procurement strategically for green and circular outcomes and assessing environmental needs when planning procurement. The next training took place on 12 September 2019, covering the legal aspects of GPP and engaging the market for sustainable innovations.

“In addition to the training provided by the GPP Office, the provision of tailored training on Green Public Procurement by ICLEI has allowed us to further support GPP Coordinators in the implementation of our new GPP 2nd National Action Plan, which shall be adopted in the coming months. In Malta, the public sector is one of the largest procurers of goods and services, and by leveraging our purchasing power to instil due environmental consideration the private sector will follow suit, hence exploiting GPP to its maximum potential as a market-based mechanism.” - Kristian Sultana,  Environment Officer in the Maltese Directorate for the Environment and Climate Change

John Watt, one of the ICLEI trainers, said “it was great to bring best practices in GPP from across Europe to assist and inspire the Maltese procurers in making their NAP happen.

ICLEI will provide two more training sessions in Malta that will dive into circular procurement and focus on specific products and services that Maltese procurers see as strategically important for GPP. ICLEI will deliver those two sessions in February and May 2020.

In parallel to the training in Malta, several other GPP training sessions are taking place across Europe. Procurers that would like to spread GPP knowledge within their organisations can also make use of the GPP training toolkit, developed by ICLEI on behalf of the European Commission. It can be found online here.