The European Commission (EC) will produce a report that collects good practices on socially responsible public procurement (SRPP), and ICLEI is are supporting the EC to identify these outstanding examples from local, regional, national and European buyers.
Buying social is about acquiring ethical products and services; using public tenders to promote decent work along the supply chain; introducing gender equality criteria or other social considerations in your tenders; using the light regime for social services, reserved contracts to encourage social outcomes, and accelerating inclusion of people with disabilities by including certain specifications in your tenders, among others.
ICLEI will also support a communication campaign - #WeBuySocialEU - to reach public procurers and authorities to share with them the advantages of SRPP and encourage them to invest time and money on it, and to reach social economy businesses to provide information on the possibilities of SRPP and facilitate their participation in public tendering.

On behalf of the EC, between March 2018 and September 2021 ICLEI developed an ambitious training programme to professionalise and scale up GPP on an EU-wide level. The training was carried out by local trainers in ten EU member states:
- Bulgaria by Center of Energy Efficiency (EnEffect)
- Croatia by Projekt jednako razvoj d.o.o. (PJR)
- Cyprus by Cyprus Energy Agency (CEA)
- Estonia by Baltic Environmental Forum Estonia
- Hungary by Business Economics Science Education Foundation (BESEF)
- Latvia by the Latvian Environmental Investment Fund (LEIF)
- Lithuania by Baltic Environmental Forum Lithuania
- Poland by Foundation CentrumCSR
- Portugal by Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia (LNEG)
- Romania by Ecosistemi

The Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) is a European Commission initiative that supports 136 cities in using cutting-edge technologies to lead the intelligent, green and socially responsible recovery. The ICC cities and their local ecosystems will be engines for the recovery of their local economy, create new jobs, and strengthen citizen participation and wellbeing.

The ICC is part of a wider EU support system that recognises the importance of delivering on the promises made by the European Green Deal, the digital strategy, and other EU policies. It looks to move towards a more digital, service-oriented and low-carbon economy, supported by a knowledge-based society, that enables circular economy systems through ‘local value loops’, evidence-based reskilling, and sustainable investments.

The Smart Cities Marketplace plays an important role in speeding up the green transition of cities in Europe by improving citizens’ quality of life, increasing the competitiveness of European cities and industry as well as reaching European energy and climate targets. Furthermore, the Marketplace offers services and events for both cities and investors on creating and finding bankable smart city proposals by using our Investor Network and publishing calls for projects.

The Marketplace is currently in the process of establishing a community that will consist of various Focus and Discussion groups. The Smart Cities Marketplace facilitates Focus and Discussion groups on various topics to guide peer exchange and support cities in their smart development.

The general objective of this project is to develop a pool of professional public procurers who will undertake to support the public procurement activity for all contracting authorities and will support the transition to the green and digital economy in Cyprus. More specifically, the project aims Improve the country’s performance and ranking in all indicators of strategic public procurement including the promotion of sustainable, green, innovative and socially responsible public procurement

The main idea behind the GPP Helpdesk is to promote and disseminate information about GPP, and to provide timely and accurate answers to stakeholders' enquiries. Stakeholders can send their questions by email to gpp-helpdesk@iclei.org. The GPP News Alert – a newsletter covering the latest news on green procurement in the EU plus a selection of good practice examples to illustrate how GPP can be done in practice – is also part of the Helpdesk service. As are the organisation of webinars on topics of relevance to practitioners. As of 2022 the European Commission expanded the scope of the GPP Helpdesk to also cover the social responsibility dimension.

Children and young people spend most of their days at school, making it not just a place for learning, but also for eating and socialising. SchoolFood4Change (SF4C) combines all of these elements to have a positive long-term impact on school meals across the continent. The four-year EU-funded project sets out to redefine what it means to eat healthily and sustainably at school, while also addressing food education at several levels. SchoolFood4Change sees schools as catalysts for systemic and multi-actor change, including but not limited to school curricula. It involves training cooks, caterers and public procurers at city level and aims to create a true ripple effect, impacting up to two million citizens in the 12 participating EU countries.

In line with the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the project develops innovative solutions and tailored, locally adaptable good practices for schools, school meal providers, responsible public authorities and policymakers. To achieve the ambitious goal of enabling community-wide food system change, the 43 partners involved in SF4C – spearheaded by ICLEI Europe – follow a holistic multi-level approach: this entails the development of innovative and sustainable food procurement criteria and methods, the promotion of planetary health diets and cooking, and the introduction of a Whole School Food Approach. This is a defined framework for municipalities and schools that are aiming to create a holistic food culture and bring food to the heart of the school mission.

ICLEI delivers the European Commission’s (EC) GPP Help Desk service on behalf of the European Commission. Providing services such as responding to all public enquiries, publishing the GPP News Alerts, analysing national GPP websites and compiling and revising new content for the GPP Europa website. As of 2022 the Helpdesk covers socially responsible procurement as well.

On behalf of the EC, ICLEI is in charge of the EC training programme for the period 2022-2024. Local trainers are in charge of implementing and delivering a national training programme. It consists of four introductory sessions based on the existing GPP training toolkit and one specific session covering GPP issues of specific relevance to the country. The training activites will be carried out in ten EU member states:

- Bulgaria by Center of Energy Efficiency (EnEffect)
- Cyprus by Cyprus Energy Agency (CEA)
- Czech Republic by Adam Gromnica
- Estonia by Baltic Environmental Forum Estonia
- Greece by Nthessis
- Hungary by Business Economics Science Education Foundation (BESEF)
- Lithuania by Baltic Environmental Forum Lithuania
- Portugal by Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia (LNEG)
- Romania by REPER21
- Slovakia by creatio eu