Issue 12, Autumn 2019
IN THIS ISSUE
Welcome to the twelfth issue of the Procura+ Update. This newsletter brings together the latest news from the Procura+ European Sustainable Procurement Network and ICLEI's work on sustainable and innovation procurement.
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CONTENTS
HOT TOPIC: Winners of the Procura+ Awards 2019 revealed
PROCURA+ NEWS: Participants engage the market for zero emission construction
PROJECT NEWS: New Circular Economy project kicks off
OTHER NEWS: MUPASS Dialogue Forum 2019 - our key take-aways
1 | HOT TOPIC
Zurich, Ghent, Frederiksberg and CERN, winners of the Procura+ Awards 2019
The winners of the 2019 Procura+ Awards were revealed on September 24 during the award ceremony at the Nordic Edge Expo in Stavanger, Norway. The Awards, an initiative of ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, recognise excellence in sustainable and innovation public procurement across four categories.
In the category of "Sustainable Procurement of the Year", Procura+ participant Ghent (Belgium) was awarded for its work partnering with suppliers on responsible work wear. Runner-up in this category is the Procura+ participant Government of Catalonia (Spain) – with its sustainable framework contract for cleaning services. The “Procurement Initiative of the Year” was this year awarded to Procura+ Participant Zurich (Switzerland) for its initiative to use recycled concrete in buildings.
The Municipality of Frederiksberg (Denmark) won the “Innovation Procurement of the Year” Award. The city needed to reduce the load on its existing drainage network from the increase in climate change-related heavy rain events. It used an innovation partnership to develop customised solutions to catch rainwater and manage its release. Finally, the "Outstanding Innovation Procurement in ICT" Award went to a consortium led by CERN (a research organisation based in Switzerland).
To learn more about the winners and find out about the runners up of each category read the full article here.
Copyright image: ICLEI Europe
2 | PROCURA+ NETWORK
Procura+ participants engage the market for zero-emission construction procurement
Cities from across Europe including many Procura+ Participants met in Copenhagen to inform market actors in the construction supply chain of their targets and plans for clean and healthy construction. Representatives from Procura+ Participants Copenhagen, Oslo, Helsinki, Budapest and Brussels Environment as well as Lisbon, Amsterdam and Trondheim discussed procurement ambitions for zero-emission construction sites and sustainable building materials in their cities.
Circular construction materials are a key area of interest for innovative local governments. Building material is a major emitter of CO2, meanwhile cities can improve the way construction materials are kept in the loop within their own cities. A main question for these cities is how to develop circular ideas into actual procurements.
Ninna Hedeager Olsen, Mayor of Technical and Environmental Affairs at the City of Copenhagen, opened the event by stating that "We need everyone on board to make clean construction work. We are here to explore what are reasonable and achievable demands. How do we help the market to help us to make a more sustainable construction sector? Meeting with others is always the first step to a better future."
The cities highlighted their targets to the market. For example, Copenhagen's CPH2025 Climate Plan includes a goal for the City to use fossil-free fuels in its non-road mobile machinery. Oslo announced its policy for construction sites to be zero-emission by 2025, showing its leadership in sustainable procurement. The cities and suppliers were able to discuss challenges and solutions for meeting these targets in an open dialogue session.
Read the full article here.
Image copyright: Anders Vestergaard Jensen, ClimateKIC Anders Vestergaard
Share your Social Procurement examples |
Procura+ Interest Group meeting: Fair ICT |
Procura+ participants for zero emission vehicle procurement |
3 | PROJECT NEWS
New project encourages transition to a circular economy
A new project supporting the transition to a circular economy in European cities has been kicked off. CityLoops, an EU-funded project coordinated by ICLEI Europe, puts a strong emphasis on how public procurement can support this transition.
CityLoops focuses on two of the most significant urban material flows with remarkable environmental impacts in European cities: construction and demolition waste (CDW) – including soil – and organic waste (OW). Partners involved in this four-year initiative will develop 'circular city scan' methodology and indicators by adapting material flow analysis (MFA) and urban metabolism methods, as well as Circular Procurement Assessments to leverage the power of procurement. This will drive the transition to a circular economy.
Through this process, seven small- to medium-sized cities in Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain will test a number of innovative tools and processes to support circular planning, procurement, and decision-making related to CDW and OW. Scale-up plans in each of the demonstration cities will be prepared, while collaborative learning networks will be established at the regional level. These activities will be underpinned by public procurement support, including several workshops and guidance material on circular procurement.
City Loops offers a range of options for other cities to get involved. If you are interested to learn more about these opportunities, please contact procurement@iclei.org.
More from our projects
Learn how to GPP: ICLEI trains procurers in Malta |
8 challenges from public authorities across the EU |
4 | OTHER NEWS
MUPASS Dialogue Forum 2019
The MUPASS Dialogue Forum 2019 took place in Bonn, Germany. The three-day Forum enabled a fruitful exchange on the topic of sustainable public procurement (SPP) with many interactive formats for senior officials from Europe, Africa and South America. The event was jointly organized by the German Development Institute, Engagement Global, Service Agency Communities in One World and the German Federal Ministry for Economy Cooperation and Development.
Our colleague Philipp Tepper attended the event to share ICLEI’s work on enabling socially responsible public procurement (SRPP) through the Procura+ Network or the Global Lead Cities Network (GLCN) as well as the opportunity to submit good practice cases as part of the #WeBuySocialEU Project.
Back in 2018, the German Development Institute started organizing international dialogue on SPP, finding that despite regional differences, key challenges in implementing SPP are similar. Thus, mutual exchange and learning beyond borders appears extremely beneficial for public procurement experts.
Find out about our three key take-aways from this year’s event here.
Image copyright: Paola Forcada, twitter
Last but not least...
New article about procurement and sustainability finance |
New EU GPP criteria for Food and Catering published |
OECD Public Procurement Week: Smart Cities |
Copyright © 2019 ICLEI European Secretariat GmbH, Freiburg, Germany. All rights reserved.
This newsletter has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and
innovation programme under grant agreement No 649718.