The finalists for the 2022 Procura+ Awards have been unveiled. The Awards, supported by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, reward successful, sustainable, circular and innovative public procurement projects. These year awards will be given out in four categories: Circular Procurement of the Year, Innovation Procurement of the Year, Procurement initative of the Year, and Sustainable Procurement of the Year.
Two nordic cities are finalists in the Circular Procurement category. Malmö (Sweden) has replicated its approach from the Circular PP project, aimed at non-furniture for its city hall, for the procurement of road and navigation signs. The municipality aims to reuse the signs as much as possible with recycling being the last resort option. Tampere (Finland) is renovating one of its main streets using new public circular economy criteria it developed as part of a multidisciplinary cooperation with stakeholders from different sectors. Tampere and Malmö are joined by Quimper (France) which aimed to reuse on-site as materials as possible during the renovation of its railway station.
Lisbon (Portugal) is a finalist in the category Innovation Procurement of the Year, for its development of a Procurement Planning Platform. The Platform will serve as the backbone for a strategic sourcing approach aimed at sustainability and innovation. Lisbon is competing here with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy. Its IWR2021 project applied an innovative approach to the procurement of ICT hardware, set a new standard in the field, and challenged the market to become more sustainable.
Ghent (Belgium) and Copenhagen (Denmark) are recognised in the category Procurement Initiative of the Year. The Belgian city, together with the Flemish Energy Company (VEB), set up a virtual power purchase agreement (PPA) for the delivery of locally produced solar power. The PPA protects the city against volatility in electricity prizes. The Danish capital, aiming to become the first carbon-neutral capital by 2022, implements criteria in all its civil works tenders to promote fossil- and emission-free non-road mobile machinery.
Utrecht (The Netherlands) applied far-reaching social and sustainable criteria in its food procurement to ensure sustainable, circular, high quality food products for its citizens, reduce packaging and residual flows, and minimise food waste. For this, it was chosen as a finalist in the Sustainable Procurement of the Year category. It is joined here by the Irish Prison Service, which conducted a tender for the removal and recycling or repurposing of discarded mattresses across all 12 of its prisons. The tender requirements also included that the contractor should employ former offenders.
The winners will be announced at 12 October during a live awards ceremony at the Procura+ Seminar in Brussels (Belgium). The jury selecting the winners and finalists consists of
- Erika Bozzay, Senior Policy Adviser at the Infrastructure and Public Procurement Division, OECD
- 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
- Sarah O'Carroll, Cities Lead, Institutions, Governments & Cities, Ellen MacArthur Foundation
More information on the finalists and their work can be found on the Procura+ website.