Winner: THE NORWEGIAN CENTRAL PROCUREMENT BODY
 Framework agreement on the reuse and recycling of used ICT equipment
In 2022 the Norwegian Central Procurement Agency launched a call for tender for a framework agreement for the reuse and recycling of ICT equipment. The requested services included collection, transport, secure data disposal, and sorting of ICT equipment for reuse or recycling. Requirements were also set for worklife inclusion, adding a social aspect to the contract. In order to give priority to bidders with business strategies that maximise reuse over recycling and with profit-sharing models more advantageous for the administration, the contract award criteria were divided between quality (70%) and price (30%) criteria. Regarding the process, questionnaires were sent to both suppliers and potential contracting authorities,  one-on-one meetings were held and a cross-disciplinary procurement team led the procurement. A public hearing was held to seek the views of other stakeholders.
Impacts: local job creation, value at national level for circular economy value chains. Carbon value of reused and recycled material is 1169220 kg CO2-eq. 50% of the personnel contributing to the contract contributes to the worklife inclusion criteria, above the minimum requirement of 20%.
Value: €5.5 million

Runner-up: DUTCH CUSTODIAL INSTITUTION AGENCY
  Benefits for prisoners and society: creating post-imprisonment employment and self-empowerment with a multi-dimensional sustainable food approach in Dutch prisons
Food is a basic necessity and has a major impact in daily life for more than 10,000 detainees in 26 Dutch prisons. Therefore, the Dutch Custodial Institution Agency decided to move towards a more just food procurement, giving the detainees a key role in the process, setting their diet satisfaction as a minimum requirement. The procurement also took into account environmental factors, such as reduction of food waste, a decrease in CO2 emissions, and social aspects, such as the deployment of local entrepreneurs and the contribution of the contract to the reintegration of detainees through traineeships. The Agency carried out an intensive dialogue with the market to familiarise suppliers with the organisation, come up with innovative solutions and test the tender strategy for feasibility.
Impacts: the contract is already showing some results. During the first year, the suppliers have organised over 100+ cooking workshops, created over 50+ jobs in detention and 25+ jobs after prison.  
Value: € 300 million (8 year contract)

Third place: GREATER LONDON AUTHORITY, UK
 Ensuring supplier diversity and social value as part of the Mayor of London’s Architecture + Urbanism (A+U) Framework
The Architecture + Urbanism (A+U) Framework was launched in 2023 and provides a diverse, pre-approved panel of built environment consultants, making it quicker and easier for organisations like councils and housing associations to commission expertise for a range of built environment projects. The framework was procured using sustainability expertise and social value-led design methodologies to foster the production of a more inclusive built environment. Its main aim was to establish a panel of consultants that are more representative of London’s diverse population, correcting the under-representation of women and people from minority groups in public procurement processes and  the supply chain sector. Further objectives were to foster equality of opportunity in access to public sector work, to highlight innovation in public sector procurement processes and promote best practices in responsible procurement. The Framework can be used by public sector commissioning authorities across the UK to appoint high-quality architectural, place making and urban planning design services
Impacts: 40 enquiries to date and 9 call off have completed and submitted final information, resulting in 5 Direct Awards, 4 Mini Competitions for a combined fee value of £1.5m (1.7m euros). The calls are mostly from SMEs.
Value: approx. € 63 million (£55m)

Winner: CITY OF MALMÖ, SWEDEN
 Promoting accessibility through universal design
Universal design aims to make physical infrastructure, goods and services accessible to people of all ages, sizes and abilities. It allows wheelchair users to sit and work comfortably. Universal design minimises the need for assistive technologies, reduces stigmatisation, and benefits a wide range of people, beyond just those with disabilities. . To reduce barriers to participation as much as possible, the City of Malmö developed procurement criteria to be used in several tenders based on universal design principles. The tender specifications outlined the seven principles of universal design, as defined by the Centre for Universal Design at North Carolina State University, and required furniture to meet at least the first two principles (i.e. equitable use and flexibility of use). The city also developed "variety cards" that provide guidance to designers and others working to improve accessibility and usability.By encouraging suppliers to systemically take into consideration accessibility issues, the City of Malmö is promoting an integral approach to accessibility and inclusion and ensuring that the approach is sustained in the longer term.

Runner-up:BODØ MUNICIPALITY, NORWAY
  Northern Norway's first zero emission construction site
The municipality of Bodø launched a call for tenders targeting low-emission solutions, which, once awarded, became the first project in northern Norway to use zero-emission excavators. The municipality sought to test whether the market would respond to their market-based approach to solutions, which was based on keeping the minimum requirements relatively low, but giving a high positive score to zero emission machinery. Environment and emission reduction accounted for 35% of the total score, split equally between zero emission machinery and the bidders' written proposal on how to minimise their environmental impact.4 bids were received, 3 of which offered all-electric excavators. Impacts: CO2 emissions saved will be between 100 and 300 tonnes from the excavators. The municipality also estimates that 15,000 tonnes of rock materials will be reused in this and other projects. The technology has been successfully tested and is now available in the area, proving that the market-based approach works. There is now an ongoing, commercially available operation to sort, store and resell used building materials in Bodø.Value: €10,000,000.

Third place: AGENCY FOR ROADS AND TRAFFIC, BELGIUM
 Mobilidata Core
The procurement is part of the Belgian Mobilidata Programme, in which governments, companies and researchers work together to bring innovative technological traffic solutions to the road user. These deliver many benefits, such as better route advice, tailored traffic notifications and intelligent traffic lights. The procurement was carried out as a competitive dialogue and it aims to design, develop and roll out a combination of public C-ITS (Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems and Services) cloud services, public data sources, and commercial C-ITS applications (front-end and back-end). The Competitive Dialogue aimed to define the subdomains of the Mobilidata system architecture: public C-ITS cloud services, developing public and private data sources to the required level, and the realisation of commercially available C-ITS use cases up to end-users. The process saw a dialogue phase which aimed to co-create a complete design, accompanying plans of action and offers through close cooperation and dialogue between the contracting authority and the Mobilidata Programme team. The current consortium of private parties led by Be-Mobile has been appointed to develop the prototypes of the traffic solutions they are currently working on.Impacts: a scalable, robust and future-proof IT infrastructure with Interchange has been realised based upon international standards, resulting in 29 C-ITS use cases available by the beginning of 2024 region wide, which will facilitate all kinds of end users (pedestrians, cyclists, emergency services, cars and trucks) towards more traffic safety, better and more reliable traffic flow and more sustainable mobility, for example via cooperative traffic lights that anticipate approaching cyclists
Value: approx. € 15 million

Winner: CITY OF LISBON, PORTUGAL
 Municipality of Lisbon Sustainable Procurement Management System: Leading Sustainable Management
The municipality of Lisbon, one of the top 10  national public buyers in Portugal,  has been trying to mainstream sustainability in its tenders for years. The municipality has developed, in line with the recommendations of the ISO 20400 Sustainable Procurement standard, a Sustainable Procurement Management System, whose objective was to establish a systematic framework ensuring that all public procurement processes within the Municipality of Lisbon are developed within responsible, transparent, fair, and ecological principles. The approach was designed to provide clear guidance and strategies to facilitate easy application of sustainability criteria in all procurement processes. This involved implementing stringent measures to prioritise environmental and social responsibility, transparency, and equitable access for all stakeholders, aspiring to exceed legal and ethical requirements, setting a higher standard for sustainable procurement in the public sector. Central to this initiative was a robust Code of Conduct for Suppliers, emphasising sustainability. This Code of Conduct served as a guiding document for all public procurement processes, ensuring the application of sustainability criteria that surpassed traditional green procurement, with an emphasis on ethics, transparency and social criteria in their engagement with suppliers and organisations. The Sustainable Procurement System yielded positive results, fostering inclusivity among suppliers without restricting market access. They witnessed a notable increase in the number of bids capable of meeting sustainable and innovative specifications and a significant enhancement of sustainable practices across the supply chain.

Runner-up: BARCELONA CITY COUNCIL, SPAIN
 Barcelona City Council Social Clauses Advisory Service to promote the access of companies within the social economy sector to public tenders
Barcelona has developed a responsible public procurement strategy. Through Barcelona Activa, the city's local development agency, the Social Clauses Advisory Service was launched, and various actions have been implemented to facilitate access to public tenders for social economy enterprises. Among others those include advice to contracting departments wishing to incorporate social clauses in their current procedures, training programme in public procurement for social and solidarity economy enterprises (SSE), and advice to companies awarded contracts. These actions are also in line with other European policies such as the Social Economy Action Plan. The need to train SSE organisations in public procurement to improve their skills, knowledge and opportunities for access to public tenders was detected by agents in the SSE field and within the within the public procurement working group of the Social and Solidarity Economy Strategy Barcelona 2030. The training program is free of charge and has 3 axes: awareness raising and cultural and organisational change on public procurement and SSE; data analysis and tools update; and detection of opportunities for the SSE area linked to public procurement.
Impacts: Since 2021, 6 editions have been held, 43 sessions with a total of 662 participants.73 advice meetings were held with participating companies.

Third place: LITHUANIAN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT OFFICE
 Green Procurement Reform in Lithuania
In 2021, an ambitious public procurement reform was launched to reduce Lithuania’s carbon footprint and ensure every public procurement decision considers its environmental impact. This led to the creation of a new sustainability unit in the Lithuanian Public Procurement Office (LPPO) which pushed for the mandatory use of GPP criteria, and supported buyers through training and a helpdesk. In Lithuania, in 2020, only 3% of public procurement spending by value used green award criteria favouring environmentally friendly products and services. The government committed to shifting that to 100% by 2023. The LPPO is using open procurement data to track the status of its ‘green targets’ through a user-friendly public dashboard, nudging authorities if they lag behind. So far, levels of green procurement uptake across Lithuanian public institutions have increased to 96% by value and 94% by total procedures in quarter 3 of 2023. The LPPO is now keen to move beyond measuring outputs like the use of green criteria to focus on the outcomes from better procurement, such as reducing Lithuania’s carbon footprint. The Ministry of Environment is currently conducting an impact assessment to evaluate the environmental impacts of GPP in transport, textile, food, and other procurement categories.