Public authorities have the power to use procurement to create better working conditions and protect the rights of workers and communities by purchasing products that have been procured in a socially responsible manner.
The Procura+ Interest Group on Socially Responsible Public Procurement (SRPP) aims
With the expertise of Electronics Watch, Procura+ Network and ICLEI Europe, procurement guidance including criteria and verfication schemes are being developed that consider social responsibility throughout the whole supply-chain of ICT products. These are applied by five pilot authorities: Greater London Authority (GLA), Region Stockholm, Barcelona City Council, Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges Scotland (APUC) , and Gemeente Haarlem.
The European Commission has granted three million euros funding for the three year project Make ICT Fair - Reforming Manufacture & Minerals Supply Chains through Policy, Finance & Public Procurement.
The overall objective of the project is to:
The EuropeAid project officially started on 1st November 2017.
Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges (APUC) is an Electronics Watch Affiliate. The pilot authority has experience in integrating not only green but also criteria to achieve a socially responsible procurement. More specifically, the consortium supports various universities and colleges across Scotland to implement sustainable public procurement.
Pilot case: Framework agreement for supply, design, and installation of energy efficient audio-visual equipment, awarded in 2018.
Estimated value for the framework agreement: £15 million pounds per annum.
Barcelona City Council is both Procura+ Participant and Electronics Watch Affiliate. This pilot authority went through the process of integrating selected criteria, clauses and specifications for social responsibility in a tender of datacenters during Spring/Summer 2019.
The respective Meet the Buyer Event took place 27th February 2019 in Barcelona.
"I was pleasantly surprised at the interest shown by the suppliers and companies. It shows that it really is a topical issue. It is a good time to move forward”
- Carla Canal Rosich, Barcelona City Council
The Municipal Institute of Computer Science of the City Council of Barcelona (IMI onwards) has the need to address a process of acquisition of IT equipment at Workplace to meet the needs of the Plan of Unfolding 2019- 2020 and modernize the existing equipment in the different places of work of the Barcelona City Council and its affiliated agencies.
- Procurement for supply, deployment and installation service of desktop workstations and laptops
- Timeline: Summer 2019
- Scope: desktop workstations, laptops for € 1,220,171.63
Award Criteria:
Practices of responsible supply in relation to the goods supplied: Up to 4 points
1) Have a public supply policy or code of conduct that takes into account the performance of their suppliers to ensure compliance with the social, labor and human rights norms in the production of the goods under the contract and how the check is done. 2 points
Accreditation: Web address, URL or email address to get this policy. In the case of distributors, both the manufacturer's own policy and adhesion to the supply policy of the manufacturer of the proposed equipment must be certified.
2) Have a public policy of supply or code of conduct that covers the entire life cycle of production (manufacturing, transportation, foundry / refinery and mining) that guarantees the transparency of the supply chain and compliance with the social norms , labor and respect for human rights, both in the manufacture of the products and in the extraction of raw materials, used in the production of the goods that are the subject of the contract and how the verification is carried out. 4 points
Accreditation: Web address, URL or email address to get this policy. In the case of distributors, both the manufacturer's own policy and adhesion to the supply policy of the manufacturer of the proposed equipment must be certified.
+ Electronic Watch Clauses
The City of Haarlem is another pilot authority of the project. In Spring 2019 a restricted tender on workplace hardware will be published. This means the procurement is divided in two rounds. One round for selecting a few interested parties and one round to select the best offer. The criteria and clauses of the tender will include social responsibility with the aim to go beyond previous efforts.
Combining a digital transformation of the workplace with a physical transformation of the workplace meaning a successful adoption of our new IT-environment and virtual workspace.
- Procurement of a Software Defined Datacenter (SDDC) and End-User Computing environment (EUC) Based on VMware technologies, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
- Timeline: Spring/Summer 2020 - however postponed due to impacts of Covid-19 pandemic
- Scope: Workspace hardware for 900-1000 desks and 1100 mobile devices.
Award criteria:
1) Plan for supply chain transparency as well as the scope of the labour and social standards to be observed (50% of achievable credit points for the concept)
Tenderers should explain their plans for the next 3 years to establish transparency in their minerals supply chain, i.e. how they intend to link individual mines to the supply chains of specific products that form the subject matter of this contract as well as ensure that the labour and social standards set out in the call for tenders are respected.
This should include:
•A plan that specifies the steps that they want to take to establish the supply chain transparency in their minerals supply chain and describe the milestones that will be reached and when they will be reached.
•An overview about the management system, i.e. policies, processes and procedures they have or will set up to achieve the objective of establishing transparency for the minerals supply chains of the subject matter of the contract. One way could be to describe the management system through a "Plan, Do, Check, Act" approach.
•A description of the resources they will allocate to implement the plan and the respective management system.
The tenderer should where possible demonstrate how they will ensure compliance with the labour and social standards defined in this tender by the Electronics Watch contract clauses.
2) The plausibility of the concept for compliance (50% of achievable credit points for the concept)
The plausibility depends in particular on the extent to which:
(1) the tenderer provides a plan that defines realistic steps and milestones that will enable naming the suppliers of raw materials (mines, etc.) to their smelters/refiners published in the so called smelter lists, i.e. linking the mines to the subject matter of this contract;
(2) the tenderer provides a time plan for the specific milestones;
(3) the tenderer provides a description of their management system, demonstrating how processes and procedures relate to supply chain transparency and engagement
(4) the tenderer is able to identify concrete measures which the manufacturer intends to take in order to ensure that the production and production of raw materials necessary for the production are given the best possible consideration for the employment resulting from the ILO Conventions referred to in point 1. and social standards;
(5) the tenderer provides a plan on how they will periodically report to the City of Haarlem on the progress of the implementation of the plan.
+ Electronic Watch Clauses
The Municipality of Stavanger is aware of its social responsibility as a procuring authority, and is a long-time member of Ethical Trade Norway. Since 2009, Stavanger has an action plan for ethical trade which is part of the municipality's procurement strategy. The action plan is regularly revised and contributes to an increased quality of procurements, ensuring that they are performed in a sustainable, resource efficient and non-discriminatory way.
Stavanger is now procuring ICT-equipment to enable the transition to digitalised teaching.
As part of this, Stavanger is procuring Chromebooks for all elementary school and junior high school pupils in the municipality. The municipality chose to emphasise social responsibility in accordance with the Norwegian Procurement Act (§5 LOA), which requires by law that contracting authorities implement appropriate measures to promote respect for human rights in public procurement where there is a risk of violation of such rights.
The contract was awarded according to a price: quality ration of 40%: 60%. Quality criteria included: supplier ethics and responsible trading; the manufacturer’s code of conduct; capacity building; and, external cooperation.
Two bids were received for the contract on supply of Chromebooks. The evaluation showed that both providers are actively engaged in ethical trade and have implemented social responsibility in their business. The winner provided more in-depth information that indicates more work on social responsibility in the supply chain. When awarding the contract, the supplier was asked to complete a risk assessment, which, together with the terms of the agreement, will form the basis for a follow-up.
The Region of Stockholm is also an Affiliate to Electronics Watch. In the past, the pioneering authority has advanced social responsibility criteria and clauses into multiple tenders. As a result the authority holds significant experience, especially when it comes to contract management.
Stockholm has identified ICT as a priority area to be addressed in procurement, due to the high risk of human rights, labour rights, and child labour violations within the supply chain. As an energy consuming product category, sustainable ICT procurement also contributes to the region’s energy efficiency and carbon reduction targets. Example: Sustainable procurement of desktop and portable computers
- Procurement of PC - personal computers - stationary and laptops
- Timeline: contract started 2019-03-15, run until 2021-03-14
- Scope: 7 million €
Award Criteria:
Chemical substitution: the tenderer should show that trademark offered computers work with chemical substitution according to the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas.
Contract Performance Clauses:
Stockholm expects suppliers to respect the shared Swedish regions’ Supplier Code of Conduct, and demonstrate transparent and systematic work to reduce the risks in the supply chain for the products offered and address conflict mineral related problems. In line with this, social responsibility criteria were also included in the tender.
Products shall be produced under conditions which are compatible with: the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the ILO Core Conventions, UN convention on the Rights of the Child, UN Convention Against Corruption, as well as the working environment and labour laws of the country where the goods are manufactured. This shall be done by having relevant policies in place, adopted at the highest levels of the company, carrying out risk assessments, encouraging uptake throughout the supply chain, and monitoring compliance and having a management system for non-compliance.
+ Electronics Watch Clauses
The Greater London Authority (GLA) is both Electronics Watch Affiliate and Procura+ Participant. As strategic regional authority it holds powers over transport, policing, economic development and fire and emergency planning. The GLA Group spends around £11billion on its procurement activities every year. As part of Make ICT Fair the GLA organised a supplier engagement event.
The Make ICT Fair Meet the Buyer - Series brings together public procurers and suppliers in the field of ICT from all over Europe or in a local context to discuss upcoming tenders that aim to pioneer social responsibility and transparency in supply chains.
The event series aims to (1) inform about social responsibility in ICT procurement processes; (2) give space to present the upcoming tender as well as good practice examples for socially responsible procurement of ICT products; (3) facilitate the exchange between the public authority and potential suppliers and resellers with regards to their needs and capacities, respectively.
This online dialogue enabled Nordic cities present their vision for fair, circular procurement of smartphones to the market, and collaboratively develop key actions towards realising that vision.
This Meet the Buyer event facilitated the exchange between the needs and intentions of Gemeente Haarlem and the available approaches and capacities of suppliers to deliver an upcoming tender. The focus of the engagement was put on criteria of social responsibility as well as circularity of ICT workplace hardware.
Presentations
How to work with clauses for social responsibility, Electronics Watch
Sustainable and responsible procurement in Haarlem, Gemeente Haarlem
Project Any, Gemeente Haarlem
Efficient Life-cycle Management, CHG Meridian
Supply Chain Sustainability, HP
Circular devices, Closing the Loop
Sustainable Procurement of ICT Hardware
The event brought together public procurers from Barcelona City Council and retailers and suppliers in the field of ICT hardware e.g. work stations, processing infrastructure, laptops, to discuss procurement needs and solutions, focusing on social responsibility and transparency in supply chains.
Event Material
Presentations
Examples of Social Reponsibility in ICT Procurement, ICLEI
Public procurement for industry engagement and social responsibility in ICT supply chains, Electronics Watch
The live market engagement event 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). Read more here.
Event Material
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 Switzerland | Shared Service Organisation Noord & DUO
From Suppliers - Circular Computing | Dell | HP
Aim of the Make ICT Fair project is to exchange on the topics of socially responsible procurement, ICT hardware, supply-chains starting at mining of raw materials.
The 5th Mobile Social Congress takes place in Barcelona focus on the modern slavery generated by the technology industry’s model of production and consumption, from the mine to the landfill.
The 4th Mobile Social Congress takes place in Barcelona focus on the modern slavery generated by the technology industry’s model of production and consumption, from the mine to the landfill.
Electronics Watch holds an annual conference in December each year. This is the only conference in Europe that focuses on connecting leading practioners of socially responsible public procurement with labour rights monitoring partners from electronics production regions globally.
Conference organised by EU Commission and Federal Ministry Republic of Austria to exchange on different themes related to a digital Europe.
Legal disclaimer
This project has received funding from the European Union’s EuropeAid programme under grant agreement CSO-LA12017/388-226.The sole responsibility for any error or omissions lies with the editor. The content does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Commission. The European Commission is also not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.
The criteria and verification schemes presented on this webpage have been drafted on the basis of research on verification schemes as well as on procurement legislation and practices across Europe. However, no legal guarantee can be given by the authors. The authors does not take any liability whatsoever for the use of the information provided.