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November 2021

Circular Economy & Local Governments: Sustainable Resource Management to Mitigate Climate Change

6 November 2021, 14:00 - 15:00
Glasgow
online

This session, organised by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, ACR+ and HESAM University, will focus on understanding why we have to shift from a linear to a circular economic model if we are to tackle climate change effectively, and the variety of levers available to local and regional governments to bring about this transition.

Participants will learn about three European initiatives geared towards supporting sub-national governments on this journey: the European Circular Cities Declaration, the More Circularity, Less Carbon campaign and the COLOR CIRCLE project. A panel discussion with cities and regions involved in these initiatives will review the measures they have taken, the challenges they have faced and the results they have achieved, to provide inspiration for other local and regional governments across the world.

The session is an official EU-side event of COP26, and will take place completely online at 13:00-14:00 Glasgow time | 14:00-15:00 CET Brussels time on Saturday, 6 November 2021. You can register here.

Speakers

  • Arno Bonte - Vice-Mayor for Sustainability, Clean Air and Energy Transition, City of Rotterdam
    Vice-Mayor Arno Bonte will present the European Circular Cities Declaration. As a signatory of the Declaration, Rotterdam is committed to supporting the circular transition.Sr
  • Iain Gulland - CEO Zero Waste Scotland & ACR+ president
    Mr. Gulland will give an overview of the More Circularity, Less Carbon campaign
  • Stéphanie Modde - VP for Ecological Transition: Energy, Biodiversity, Food, Circular Economy & Water, Burgundy-Franche-Comté Region
    Ms. Modde will present the aims and objectives of the Color Circle Interreg Project

Following the three presentations, there will be a panel discussion between city and region representatives on 'Circular economy for Climate mitigation'. Vice Mayor Arno Bonte will be one of the panellists. He will be joined by:

  • Niina Ruuska - Circular Turku Programme Manager, Climate and Environment Unit, City of Turku
  • Francesco Lembo - Managing Director ACR+
  • Emanuela Manca - Environmental Sustainability, Strategic Evaluation and Information Systems Department at the Environmental Protection Directorate, Autonomous Region of Sardinia

The event can be accessed via the following link


'From Declaration to Action': How food can help local places achieve net-zero ambitions

11 November 2021, 19:30 - 22:00

Hear from UK cities and councils that are taking inspiring action on food and climate change including procurement, food waste and land use and farming, learn more about the Every Mouthful Counts Toolkit for local authorities and discuss how more places can see food as a route to meeting their net-zero commitments.

More information and registration here.


Big Buyers Observer Group Webinar

16 November 2021, 14:00 - 16:00

Big Buyers for Climate and Environment is an European Commission initiative designed to help drive market demand for innovative and sustainable products and services in Europe. The four active working groups on zero-emission construction sites, Circular ConstructionHeavy-Duty Electric Vehicles and Digital solutions in the Healthcare sector have been gathering together to find common demand and jointly approaching the market for innovative and sustainable solutions to their challenges for almost a year now.

Curious to find out about their lessons learned so far? The Observer Group webinar will give the opportunity to gain a closer look into their work. 

Save the date for Tuesday, 16 November, 14.00-16.00 and don’t forget to register!

Agenda

Welcome & introduction by the Big Buyers Secretariat [14:00 - 14.15]
● Simon Clement, ICLEI
● Ivo Locatelli, European Commission, DG Grow

Heavy-Duty Electric Vehicles [14:15 - 14.35]
● Working group update - Richard Brabers, City of Rotterdam
● Q&A

Zero-emission construction sites [14:35 - 14.55]
● Working group update - Guro Bøe Wensaas, City of Oslo
● Q&A

Circular construction [14:55 - 15.15]
● Working group update - Rudie de Vries, City of Haarlem
● Q&A

Digital Healthcare [15:15 - 15.35]
● Working group update - Rafael Hirt, ICLEI
● Q &A

Concluding remarks [15:35 - 15:40]
Opportunity for further discussion with working group leads [15:40 - 16:00]


Workflow Public Procurement

PROMOTING CITIES AS GAME CHANGERS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
19 November 2021, 10:00 - 12:00

Public procurement has great leverage to bring more sustainability to communities. The Fair Trade and the Fair Trade Town campaign can offer support in the implementation. In the first session of this workflow keynotes will be given by representatives of municipalities, who are implementing public procurement as driver for sustainability (cities in Finland, Switzerland and Italy). The goal is to present how public procurement can serve as tool for a transformation.

In the following discussion the panellists will talk about challenges and best ways on how to implement public procurement in a strategic way. This strategic way focuses on having a dialogue about sustainability and not only on consumption.

Later on, attendees and panellists can join the discussion to talk about chances and challenges they face in their municipality concerning public procurement.

Francesca Novello, Officer Sustainable Economy and Procurement working for ICLEI Local Governements for Sustainability will be a speaker in this session. More information on the other speakers and registration here.


Delivering Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence in Public Procurement

22 November 2021, 13:00 - 14:30

Session 1: Scope of Due Diligence: Tiers, Risks, and Transparency

Knowing and reporting factories and other operations in supply chains is the first step of human rights and environmental due diligence. When supply chains are obscure companies can neither identify risks nor address them. When companies do not disclose the factories in their supply chains, public buyers cannot know if they have undertaken adequate due diligence. But electronics and other supply chains are long, complex and dynamic. How far should supply chain transparency extend? Should transparency go beyond the reporting of factory locations to include compliance data and business practices?

In this session Electronics watch will discuss:

  • Why it is important for supply chain transparency to extend beyond tier one based on risk analyses
  • Current best practice on supply chain transparency
  • Long-term visions for supply chain transparency

Find more information and don't forget to register!


Save the Date! Procura + Awards ceremony to take place on 23 November

23 November 2021, 10:00 - 11:30

The 2021 Procura + Awards winners will be revealed in an online ceremony on 23 November 2021 (10:00 – 11:30 CET), to be live-streamed on YouTube. The Procura + Awards, an initiative of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, in cooperation with the EU-funded Procure2Innovate project, reward successful, already running, sustainable and innovative public procurements. Public authorities compete in four different categories: Procurement Imitative of the Year, Innovation Procurement of the Year, Outstanding Innovation Procurement in ICT and Sustainable Procurement of the Year.

In the category ‘Procurement Initiative of the Year’ the finalists competing for the Award are the Province of Zeeland (the Netherlands) and the City of Helsinki (Finland). The former is praised for using the SDG’s as the compass of all its purchases, while the Finnish capital is using carbon footprint criteria to promote sustainable public procurement, aiming to take into account the various climate impacts of procurement.

The Supreme Audit Office of the City of Prague (Czech Republic) is a finalist in the category ‘Innovation Procurement of the Year’ for including Building Information Modeling (BIM) in its tender documents to build its first permanent seat with the lowest appropriate life-cycle costs. It is joined by the Santiago de Compostela City Council (Spain) which showed it can use procurement to develop innovative solutions for its citizens, while respecting the complex and specific needs of being a World Heritage City.

In the category ‘Outstanding Innovation Procurement in ICT’ two Spanish authorities are competing for the win. Murcia Health Service (Murcia) used a co-creation model to improve communication between doctors and epilepsy patients, bringing together procurers from three different regions (Paris, Murcia, Oulu) via the European project InDemand. The Barcelona Provincial Council used innovation procurement to improve its telecare services. The tender identified the challenges, but left it up to the bidders to decide how to address them.

Finally, in the category ‘Sustainable Procurement of the Year’, the City of Copenhagen (Denmark) introduced social and environmental considerations into its food procurement, guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Agglomeration of Dinan (France) created a tender for cleaning services, aiming to not harm the environment, support access to employment and to enable companies of different sizes to apply. They are joined by the South Moravian Region (Czech Republic), which identified the need to build a new sanitarium for children with respiratory diseases and challenged the market with the ambition of making it as aesthetic, user-friendly, and energy-efficient as possible.

The entries for the 2021 Procura+ Awards were assessed by a jury of four procurement experts and policy makers. They are:

  • Erika Bozzay, Senior Policy Adviser at the Infrastructure and Public Procurement Division, OECD
  • Johanna Enberg, Strategist Innovation Procurement, National Agency for Public Procurement, Sweden
  • Katharina Knapton-Vierlich, Head of Unit, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission
  • Mark Hidson, Global Director ICLEI's Sustainable Procurement Centre

The jury will reveal its winners on 23 November. The online ceremony will take place form 10:00 – 11:30 (CET).

More details on each of this year’s finalists can be found on the Procura + website. There you will also find more information about the winners from previous years.

The Procura + Awards Ceremony will be live-streamed on ICLEI's YouTube channel. Register here to receive the YouTube link shortly before the event.


GPP Helpdesk Webinar on Computers, Monitors, Tablets and Smartphones

24 November 2021, 10:00 - 11:30

Green Public Procurement (GPP) is an important tool to achieve environmental policy goals relating to climate change, resource use and sustainable consumption and production – especially given the importance of public sector spending on goods and services in Europe.

This is the second of the two webinars of 2021, as part of the European Commission’s Helpdesk service on GPP. The webinar will focus on the revised voluntary EU GPP criteria for computers, monitors, tablets and smartphones, which have been designed to encompass the most important environmental impacts during the life cycle of these products (product lifetime extension, energy consumption, hazardous substances, end-of-life management) and which include also criteria that apply to separate procurements for refurbished/remanufactured devices and related services.

The GPP Helpdesk Webinars provide a forum to inform stakeholders working in the field of public sector procurement about important new developments in the resources available and legislative context for GPP, and provide an opportunity for questions and discussion. For more information, visit the European Commission’s GPP website.

Programme:
• Welcome and Introduction from the EU GPP Helpdesk, Enrico Degiorgis, DG Environment, European Commission
• Introduction to the revised EU GPP Criteria for computers, monitors, tablets and smartphones, Felice Alfieri, Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission
• Procurement of computers using the revised EU GPP criteria, Simone Ricotta, ARPAT - Tuscan Regional Agency for Environmental Protection, Italy
• Sustainable procurement of ICT, Josefin Levander, City of Malmö, Sweden (TBC)

Register here.


#EUCircularTalk: Could mandatory circular procurement drive the European Circular Economy Action Plan?

25 November 2021, 10:00 - 12:00

The webinar is organised by the ECESP Leadership Group on Circular procurement. The debate will centre on the policies to drive circular procurement, thereby accelerating the transition to a circular economy within the EU.

From policy levels varying from the European Commission downto cities, speakers will share their experiences with circular and green procurement policies. They will set the stage for an interactive dialogue.

You can register for the webinar here

About the EU Circular Talks

The EU Circular Talks is a new exchange concept of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform. It aims to encourage stakeholders to interact and discuss the circular economy topics in the platform.

Stakeholders initiate the topics themselves. These can take multiple forms of online events; workshops, seminars, debates or Q&As. These are followed by discussions directly via the platform's communication channels. The #EUCircularTalks uses all the communication channels to inform the community and foster the debate on the circular economy. The results of each EU Circular Talk is summarised and published on the ECESP platform.