PUBLIC PROCUREMENT NEWS

  

Deep dive

12 May 2021

Big Buyers kicks off four new working groups

Big Buyers for Climate and Environment, a European Commission initiative, kicked off the work in four new working groups to collaboratively work on current public procurement needs. After the launch in April 2021, these groups will now operate until autumn 2022 to implement strategic public procurement for sustainable solutions.

Zero-Emission Construction sites

The working group builds on the success of the first phase (“Big Buyers Initiative”). Involved cities had been working together to develop and pilot innovative procurement actions to promote alternatives to traditionally diesel-driven non-road mobile machinery for public construction works. The current working group will continue to focus on low-/ zero-emission construction sites with emission-free construction machinery. Participants will further exchange on pilots and jointly aggregate demand to accelerate the transition to zero-emission construction sites. The aim is to scale up zero-emission construction sites from pilots to standard practice by mainstreaming emission-free with wider institutional and industry green transition.

Find more information here.

Digital solutions in the healthcare sector

The working group helps to accelerate acquisition of innovative digital healthcare solutions with the particular focus on remote patient monitoring and tools for better data management and analysis. Participants can benefit from various networking and collaboration opportunities. By mapping upcoming procurement plans and values of involved entities, the working group aims to define and share procurement criteria  and organise market dialogues.

Find more information here.

Circular construction – roads, infrastructure, public space 

The working group follows the footsteps of the previous “Big Buyers Initiative” working group on circular construction materials. Its members had conducted pilot projects on circular construction, addressing different challenges to circularity of construction materials across the value chain. The new working group will collaborate to reduce embodied carbon and improve the lifecycle perspective and resource wisdom of public construction works, with a focus on public space, roads and infrastructure. It will particularly concentrate on circular, low-carbon solutions for asphalt, concrete, and base materials. The group aims to consult the market and use the information to build tender procurement criteria as well as share experience and compare pilot projects implementation. 

Find more information here.

Electric heavy-duty vehicles for waste collection, street cleaning and maintenance

The working group builds upon the successful collaboration during the first phase where cities prepared a joint statement of demand and shared their lessons learned on procuring heavy- duty vehicles. The new working group will now focus on the electrification of vehicles for waste collection and street cleaning and their recharging infrastructure. Participants will work on accelerating acquisition of electric vehicles, to achieve zero emissions vehicle fleets in cities by 2030 and to support market options available for EU peripheral regions. Participants will compare and create standardised tender criteria for E-HDV acquisition and discuss implications and challenges from the EU - Clean Vehicle Directive. 

Find more information here

Participation in all four groups is now fixed. If you are a public organisation and wish to receive updates on the activities and results of the groups, you are welcome to join the Observer Group

For more information on how Big Buyers for Climate and Environment is driving strategic public procurement forward, read up on the new Big Buyers website: https://bigbuyers.eu/

ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability and EUROCITIES are currently running the Big Buyers for Climate and Environment initiative on behalf of the European Commission, DG Internal Market, Industry Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW).