As major procurers of food and catering services, public authorities can play a strong role in supporting sustainable production and distribution practices in the sector. By carefully integrating the impact of the food they purchase into procurement decisions, public authorities can significantly contribute to supporting environmental improvements in the sector whilst providing a nutritious diet to beneficiaries and supporting targeted producers. However, there is a lack of overview to which extend procurement can have a sustainable influence at which stage of the food value chain. ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability embarks on a new project as part of the UN One Planet Network SPP Programme. The main objective of the project is to provide an overview of procurement along the food value chain and understand how it addresses key hotspots towards shaping the sustainability of food production and consumption.
The ambition is to develop a set of recommendation and case studies written for procurers as well as policy-makers from across the globe, featuring an array of approaches from actors procuring food along the food value chain. In addition, findings and lessons learned will be consolidated in a set of recommendations.

The Big Public Buyers Initiative is as a platform for promoting and enabling collaboration between big public buyers on strategic public procurement to help drive the market for innovative goods and services. The main aim of the initiative is to enhance the uptake of strategic public procurement in Europe through partnerships with public buyers. Three working groups will be established, each involving at least three public buyers, focusing on a specific product/sector, where there is a shared public need not sufficiently provided by the current market. The working groups will deliver a tangible outcome such as the development of common procurement standards, the launching of a joint statement of demand, or a joint procurement exercise. ICLEI is running the initiative together with EUROCITIES on behalf of DG Grow.

ICLEI is developing an updated version of the EU Commission's Buying Social - a Guide on taking account of social considerations in public procurement

Big Buyers for Climate and Environment is a European Commission Initiative for promoting collaboration between big public buyers in implementing strategic public procurement for sustainable solutions. ICLEI and EUROCITIES are currently running the initiative on behalf of the European Commission, DG Internal Market, Industry Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW). The initiative aims to work together with existing networks and organisations active in this area and is following the successful piloting of three working groups between 2019 and 2020 within the previous Big Buyers Initiative.

ICLEI works together with the Belgian Federal Institute for Sustainable Development (FISD) to support public buyers to help create better working conditions and protect the rights of workers and communities through ethical purchasing practices. The working groups runs throughout 2021, with the aim to create a space for leading big public buyers to exchange, take stock, discuss and identify actions towards a next-generation ethical procurement of IT.

Presentation of guidlines and best practices for procurement of recycled asphalt concrete under the "Leading City Network for Green Public Procurement” project

Key outcomes from "Leading City Network for Green Public Procurement Project". Presenting benefits from inter-city networking and overview of Policy Market Workshops for Green Public Procurement by Local Governments.

Card news summmarizing outcomes from International Networking through webinar series by Local Governments for Sustainable Consumption and Production. Topics were related to SPP in particular socially responsible public procurement, zero emission construction sides and circular economy.

First video of a video series on socially responsible public procurement (SRPP) and its positive social outcomes, produced within the #WeBuySocialEU project.
It demonstrates how public buyers can promote employment opportunities, decent work, social inclusion, accessibility, design for all, ethical trade, and seek to achieve wider compliance with social standards.