The Organic Textile Forum in Konstanz, taking place from 9-10 May, with an evening event on 8 May will have "Resources with future potential - sustainable materials and innovative raw material alternatives" as its main topic

Textile producers, dealers, organisations and authorities are always somewhere in a value chain between customers and suppliers. The pressure for social and sustainable management of all those involved as part of these supply chains is increasing. Not least because new legal regulations make it necessary and more and more customers, including consumers, are asking for sustainable products. The fact that the environment suffers from textile production and the working conditions in production countries are sometimes catastrophic calls for more responsibility on the part of business, civil society and politics.

The Organic Textile Forum will show the breadth of these challenges, but at the same time will also present solutions, good approaches and best practice examples. More information about the 2023 Organic Textile Forum and its programme can be found here.

The CCRI Coordination and Support Office is organising a webinar on the potential of public procurement to accelerate the circular transition. It will focus on how EU local initiatives and project can local and regional authorities working with procurement, the most promising pathways, and the main challenges.

The webinar will beging at the EU level, first discussing the strategic work that the European Commission is doing, including the Big Buyers Initiative. It will then turn to two selected EU-funded projects (ProCirc and BRINC) to learn from their experience and to explore what they offer to other cities and regions. The circle will then be completed with two inspiring examples from the practitioners on the ground.

This event is the fourth of a series of webinars offered to CCRI Pilots, Fellows, and other interested city/region representatives to encourage the exchange of information around selected circular economy related topics. More information can be found here.

The Big Buyers Working Together proejct is organising a kick-off webinar on the 25th of May, 14 – 15h30. The webinar will provide participants with an an explanation of the Needs Assessment process, as well as an overview of the successes of the previous edition and the upcoming activities of the project.

The European Commission launched the “Big Buyers Working Together” project to support collaboration between public buyers with strong purchasing power and promote the wider use of strategic public procurement for innovative and sustainable solutions. By working together and pooling their resources, cities, central purchasing bodies, and other major public buyers can maximise their market power and impact. The project is coordinated by Eurocities, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability and BME.

Under the Big Buyers Working Together project ten communities of practice will be created. Each community of practice will be devoted to the purchase of a specific product, work or service where European collaboration is needed. To build the foundation for this collaboration, the project has just launched its Needs Assessment (NA). The NA gives EU public buyers an opportunity to indicate their main areas of public procurement interests, challenges and needs. Over the coming months, the BBWT team will use the feedback from the NA to narrow down the list of topics and to create the new Communities of Practice (CoPs).

Register here for the webinar to find out more about this.