Innovative and sustainable procurement actions which showcase the use of public procurement as an instrument to accelerate the market introduction of innovative and sustainable technologies, are invited to apply for the 2020 Transformative Action Award.

The winner of which will receive a prize of €10,000 to help initiate further transformative actions in their city or region.

The winner will also receive free entry to the 9th European Conference on Sustainable Cities & Towns, Mannheim (Germany), 30 September – 2 October 2020, where the 2020 Transformative Action Award ceremony will take place.

The award, co-organised by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, the Basque Country, and the City of Aalborg (Denmark) and supported by the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the European Investment Bank (EIB), rewards ongoing or concluded Transformative Actions that use the 15 pathways outlined in the Basque Declaration to bring about the socio-cultural, socio-economic, and technological transformation of societies.

Current or concluded actions in the field of procurement can apply for the award by the closing date of 31 July 2020. For more information and to apply for the award, visit the Sustainable Cities Platform.

On behalf of the EU GPP helpdesk ICLEI Europe is organising a webinar to introduce the new EU GPP criteria for food, catering services and vending machines, on April 23 from 14:30 - 16:00.

Register here.

Programme

• Welcome and Introduction to the EU GPP Criteria for Food, Enrico Degiorgis, DG Environment, European Commission
• The sustainable school meal procurement initiative of Torres Vedras, Paula Rodrigues, City of Torres Vedras
• Low-carbon and sustainable food procurement in Helsinki, Satu Turula and Reetta Huomo, City of Helsinki

Background

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 spendingon goods and services in Europe.

This is the first of two Webinars that will be held in 2020, as part of the European Commission’s Helpdesk service on GPP. The webinar will focus on the updated voluntary EU green public procurement (GPP) criteriafor food, catering services and vending machines, which have been designed to help public authorities reduce the key environmental impacts associated with the growing, preparing, and selling food.

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.

How can cities support and steer the transition to a circular economy? Why are cities key players in this transition? The NetWorkshop Circular Cities is inviting you to join this online session to help us to understand the relevance of circularity in cities, the role and initiatives of European regulation as well as concrete opportunities and challenges that municipalities may face when “going circular”. The webinar takes place on Wednesday, April 1st, from 13:00 - 14:30 CET.

Simon Clement, Coordinator Sustainable Economy and Procurement at ICLEI Local Governments for Sutainability will be presneting some best practices from cities all across Europe working on the transition to circularity. The workshop will also cover the current EU regulatory framework for the circular economy and the EU's ambition for the future. And the city of Copenhagen will give a look behind the scenes of the why? how? what? of their circular transition.

If you want to join the workshop, you can regsiter via this link.

Find the full agenda here. 

In response to the current sanitary crisis, EIC Accelerator and ICLEI Europe will organize an online market engagement event. 

The e-pitching aims to connect public and private procurers from the health sector with EIC companies providing medical supply, such as personal protective garments, medication, test kits, respiratory machinery as well as innovative technologies, for example tele-medicine, remote solutions, artificial intelligence for date analysis and prediction. 

The overall idea is to have a first e-pitching and co-creation event for the fourth week of April with at least 10 European procurers and 20 to 40 EIC companies. Non EIC companies may be accepted in case they provide complementary solutions. The exact date and time is still to be determined.

If this opportunity is of interest to you, please get in touch with Rafael Hirt - rafael.hirt@iclei.org.  

The European Innovation Council (EIC) can connect public buyers with innovation needs with the community of more than 5000 top innovative SMEs and start-ups. All suppliers go through a demanding selection procedure and received EIC funding.

ICLEI Europe supports partnership building between the EIC Community members and public procurers interested in working with EIC SME’s; and manages the on-boarding of private and public procurers interested in working with innovators on the EIC Community Platform and motivate their active participation in the EIC Community.

On the 4-5 March 2020, the Big Buyers Initiative working group on Heavy-Duty Electric Vehicles met in Freiburg, Germany to prepare for upcoming market dialogues and finalise a joint platform for sharing information on their fleets and upcoming procurement plans. The group of procurers from Procura+ participants Oslo, Rotterdam, Helsinki, as well as the City of Amsterdam, Porto, and SKL Kommentus visited an AEBI-Schmidt production facility for electric street sweepers and learned about the technical aspects of electric vehicles. In the coming months, the group will hold further dialogues with identified suppliers of different heavy-duty EVs for city services. The Big Buyers is a European Commission Initiative, run by ICLEI and Eurocities, for promoting collaboration between big public buyers in implementing strategic public procurement. See more information about the Big Buyers Initiative here.

The European Commission has published a new Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) as one of the primary pillars of the European Green Deal. As half of total greenhouse gas emissions come from resource extraction and processing, it is not possible to achieve the GD’s climate-neutrality target by 2050 without transitioning to a fully circular economy.The Action Plan presents a package of measures to mainstream sustainable products in the single market, empower consumers and public buyers, promote circular business models and address the value chains of high-impact and resource intensive sectors.

At the core of the Sustainable Product Policy Framework, the Ecodesign Directive will be expanded as a comprehensive set of requirements that make sustainable products the norm in Europe, rolling out mandatory minimum Green Public Procurement criteria and specifically addressing high-impact products such as electronics, cement and chemicals. The CEAP empowers purchasers through access to verified environmental performance information, including supply chain and material traceability, and an enforced ‘right to repair’. The Commission will launch concrete actions on the following value chains: electronics and ICT, batteries and vehicles, packaging, plastics, textiles, construction and buildings, and food. Finally, new waste reduction targets for specific streams complement the new product policy towards the objective to halve residual (non-recycled) municipal waste by 2030.

For more information on the Circular Economy Action Plan, visit the European Commission’s website.

If you want to learn more about ICLEI's work supporting Circular Cities, go the Circular Cities Platform and subscribe to our newsletter

The European Commission’s Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) is now open for applications. Building on the success of the Digital Cities Challenge (DCC), the ICC seeks to help 100 EU cities tackle their urban challenges to support green, sustainable and inclusive growth.

This 2.5 year programme will help 100 cities across the EU achieve greater sustainability through the uptake of advanced technologies, targeting the biggest thematic issues for your city – be it energy, mobility, circular economy, or other local priorities. Support toward procurement initiatives may be available and ICLEI is pleased to contribute to providing the ICC with assistance in person, online, and as a community.

What can cities gain from the ICC? Cities selected for the ICC will benefit from several tools and services to help them seize opportunities for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, including:

• Tailored support  to shape and implement an ambitious strategy for the smart use of data and technology in your city, aiming to enhance sustainability and quality of life for your communities. Based on your local needs and context, Support will include advisory services and field visits by experts, involving your local administration, industry stakeholders and educational institutions in the process.
• Access to a learning and innovation community. As an ICC participant you will join an initiative of cities dedicated to a fair and sustainable use of Smart City technologies. Multiple events will be organised to allow you to meet other participants, mentors and solution providers, including a launch event, meetings for Mayors and peer review and matchmaking events.
  Facilitating connections to solutions for advanced city technology solutions. The ICC will help cities develop strategies and best practice for engaging with the market and identifying  smart city solution providers and investors, supporting the delivery of your Smart City strategy. Direct support for procurement may also be provided.

How to apply
 
If you are interested please contact Mark Hidson (mark.hidson@iclei.org) or Elsa Durieux (elsa.durieux@iclei.org) to discuss your application. The deadline for application is 18 May 2020.

European public authorities together with ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability share how to leverage procurement processes to improve working conditions across the electronics supply-chain during this years’ Mobile Social Congress. 

In a panel discussion moderated by Mercé Corretja Torrens, General Director of Public Procurement for the Government of Catalonia, Carla Canal, Barcelona City Council together with Michael McLaughlin, Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges, Scotland and our colleague Josefine Hintz, ICLEI Europe, depicted  the power of socially responsible public procurement. The discussion focussed on how the public sector applies social clauses in its purchase of ICT products and in monitoring contracts as well as how procurement can address gender inequalities in the supply chain of the electronics industry.

The electronics industry is one of the most important and dynamic sectors in the global economy. 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.

During her presentation, Josefine Hintz explored possible leverage points that can be applied by public authorities to promote gender equity across the supply chain such as to lower market access barriers for a more diverse range of businesses i.e. women-owned SMEs, to highlight the systematic vulnerability women are under when working with suppliers on social responsibility, integrate gender equality as a strategic part of a city’s ethical trade programme or to conduct due diligence and supply chain mapping with a gender lens. 

In its’ 5th edition, the Mobile Social Congress focussed on the violations of human rights and the environmental impacts that result from the electronics industry’s current model of production and consumption in both the Global North and the Global South.

Learn more about Procura+ Participants Barcelona City Council, APUC Scotland, Government of Catalonia. 

Explore more about the Mobile Social Congress here. 

New study finds that in Finland, the consumption of raw materials is notably high both in relation to gross domestic product and per capita. In 2015, public procurement consumed 19.5 megatonnes of raw materials, whereas households consumed 64.8 megatonnes.

The study by the Finnish Environment Institute analysed the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions and raw material consumption of public procurement and household consumption in Finland. The method used in the analysis was the environmentally extended input–output model ENVIMAT, which was supplemented with statistics on public procurement.

The carbon footprint of Finnish public procurement was 8.3 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent in 2015. Government procurement accounted for 21%, municipal procurement accounted for 57% and joint municipal authority procurement accounted for 22% of the total carbon footprint of public procurement.

The types of procurement expenditure with the highest emissions were heating and electricity, construction and maintenance services for buildings and areas, and travel and transport services. Food, cleaning and laundry services, fuels and lubricants, and drugs and treatment supplies also generated a significant proportion of emissions.

"Reducing consumption-based emissions requires converting domestic energy production and other manufacturing processes into low-carbon processes. In addition to this, we need ways of steering households, municipalities, joint municipal authorities and government organisations towards choosing goods and services with a smaller carbon footprint”, says Development Manager Ari Nissinen from the Finnish Environment Institute.

Access the full study here. 

Read a summary of the results here.

Learn more about carbon footprinting in ICLEI's Sustainable Procurement Resource Centre here. 

The European Commission has published a new set of tools for procurers to assess lifecycle costs during their tender procedures.

ICLEI Europe, together with Ecoinstitut has developed the LCC tools on behalf of the European Commission, that are now available on the Commission’s GPP website. The new tools cover vending machines, imaging equipment, computers and monitors, indoor lighting and outdoor lighting.

Lifecycle costing is a practical approach to evaluate bids to determine the most economically advantageous offer.They show all costs that come with the purchase of different products, including maintenance and operation, and disposal. Under specific conditions laid out in the EU directives, environmental externalities may also be taken into account when calculating a products lifecycle costs. Taking lifecycle costs into account allows procurers to award contracts for more sustainable products and services,

If you would like to learn more about the LCC tools and how to use them, you can watch the LCC tools webinar, introducing the tools and their practical application here.