The Procura+ Network has several Strategic Partners, whose role is to support and promote the activities of the Procura+ Network
Since its inception in 1972, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been the global authority that sets the environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.
The role of UNEP in general is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
UNEP has been active in the promotion of Sustainable Public Procurement at national, regional and global levels since 2005.
Highlights
Useful Resources
SPP Publications UNEP and One Planet Network
The Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) is the UK’s leading think-tank and research organisations progressing economics for people and place. CLES seeks to ensure that all policy interventions bring maximum benefit for local economies and in addressing challenges around poverty and inequality. CLES is the national focal point for the Procura+ Network in England.
Website: https://cles.org.uk
Central to CLES’s wider work around local wealth building is the work around public procurement. For the last ten years CLES have been undertaking work to address three long-term frustrations associated with public procurement:
CLES got involved in procurement because we recognise the intrinsic link to economic development; procurement can be used as a lever to deliver local economic and social change.
CLES’ work over the last ten years has sought to address the challenges outlined above. We have designed methodologies and tools for places to understand where their procurement spend goes and its wider impact. We have influenced the behaviour of commissioners, procurers and economic development practitioners so they think about procurement as a cycle and so they consider wider issues. And we have encouraged suppliers to deliver more through procurement in the form of jobs and training opportunities, for example.
CLES works with places in the long term to shift the way in which they think about public procurement:
We have been working with Manchester City Council for the last ten years to measure their impact and to develop new approaches to public procurement. We have supported increases in spend in the local economy and in introducing social value weighting into the tender process.
We have been working with Preston City Council and six other ‘Anchor Institutions’ for the last five years to collectively understand their procurement spend and harness their potential to deliver wider local economic, social and environmental outcomes.
We have been working as part of the European Union’s URBACT Programme to provides expertise to the Procure Network which is seeking to shift procurement policies and practices across 11 cities in Europe.
CLES brings intrinsic knowledge to the Procura+ Network as to how procurement can be used as a lever to address economic and social challenges.
The Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP) is a non-for-profit think and do tank working on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) across the globe. CSCP is the national focal point for the Procura+ Network in Germany.
We adopt an inclusive and holistic approach to foster sustainable consumption and production with expertise in the areas of Products and Services, Cities & Infrastructure, Policy, Lifestyles & Behaviour and Business & Entrepreneurship. Within these areas, both the think and do tank services are offered in collaboration with our partner organizations worldwide.
Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) is one main field of our expertise. We believe that Public Procurement can be a major lever to implement sustainable solutions and achieve cost savings for the public hand at the same time. Measurement and monetisation of positive and negative sustainability impacts is key to create and communicate attractive business cases to decision makers and procurers.We are undertaking various projects and programmes to mainstream SPP at national and regional governments around the world.
In the following some examples of our work and the impact we have created:
We engaged with the Royal Government of Bhutan, its Royal Institute of Management and other national stakeholders on the implementation of Green Public Procurement (GPP) at the national level in Bhutan in the scope of a project funded by European Commission through its Switch Asia Program. We raised awareness of high-level policy makers of Bhutan towards the benefits of Green Public Procurement and how to adopt value for money principle when undertaking procurement. We also trained Bhutanese public procurers on GPP and its related technical and management approaches. Trainings were imparted on topics including life cycle thinking, life cycle costing, sustainable supply chain management, procurement cycle and other topics of practical importance for GPP implementation in Bhutan. Our training materials are now being used as input for Master classes on GPP at the Royal Institute of Management.
We also worked to bring SPP to Chinese urban administrations through the project “Sustainable Public Procurement in Urban Administrations in China (SuPP-Urb)”. Three Chinese cities of Qinhuangdao (Hebei Province), Lanzhou (Gansu Province) and Tianjin piloted SPP implementation. Relying on Chinese and European examples each pilot city composed an SPP action plan to be implemented within their administration. Project focussed its efforts on enhancing environmental and social performance of office equipment and consumables purchased by above city administrations.
In addition, we work with the Sustainable Procurement Office of the Ministry of Federal Affairs, Europe and the Media in NRW region of Germany. We enable evaluation of sustainability risks and opportunities of Sustainable Public Procurement based on value chain analyses. Currently the pilot study of sustainability risks / opportunities of toys chain is being conducted. The project will deliver a concept to replicate the evaluation strategy to other product groups at the federal level.
Copper8 is a consultancy with a passion for sustainability, that initiates and facilitates the connection between different disciplines, allowing sustainable innovations to develop. They aim to help organizations build necessary organisational structures and partnerships, and secure the resulting collaborative thought in business models and contracts. This includes supporting the public sector in sustainable and innovation procurement.
Some examples of projects involving Copper8 include:
An innovative European tendering process was developed for Alliander in which collaboration was stimulated between a handful of disciplines.
Circular furniture procurement
There is much talk about circular procurement, but how do you put together such a tender? Alliander has created a tender for furniture to maximize the ambitions of the organization in terms of the circular economy.
City of Amsterdam: sustainable and circular procurement
The City of Amsterdam has an ambitious sustainability policy and aims to accelerate sustainable procurement to give it substance. Copper8 examined five product groups and developed a ‘choice card’, on the basis of which buyers and internal clients can make choices that are as ambitious as possible.
A big Dutch contractor asked us to support them in their strategy in the field of sustainability. As experienced strategy consultants, we know better than anyone that it is difficult to make a strategy process take root, so we took a different approach.
Ecosistemi has over fifteen years of consultancy experience in sustainable development, particularly on sustainable consumption and production. It is the leading organisation in Italy for the provision of support and consultancy on Green Public Procurement (GPP) and has a long standing experience in European funded projects promoting sustainability. Ecosistemi has been working on the development and implementation of policies and strategies for GPP since 2002. Ecosistemi is the national focal point for the Procura+ Network in Italy.
Website: www.fondazioneecosistemi.org
Contact person: Matteo Gordini, Environmental Consultant
Ecosistemi has supported numerous public authorities in carrying out the following activities:
Ecosistemi has designed and implemented training courses on GPP for many Italian public authorities, including: Consip-National Purchasing Agency, Province of Cremona, Regional Agency of Environmental Protection of Lazio, Municipality of Arezzo, Formez, Region Marche, Region Lombardia, Region Sardinia and Region Sicily. It has assisted public organisations in the definition and implementation of communication plans that target enterprises and potential suppliers by, for example:
Since 2005, Ecosistemi was appointed the Technical Secretary of the National Working Group on GPP for Local Agenda 21 where it delivered the Life+ project GPPinfoNET, whereby 6 regional GPP networks were created in Italy and another 3 in Europe (Romania, Poland and Spain). Several of these regional networks focus on the use of GPP as a tool for CO2 reduction and promotion of energy efficiency.
Ecosistemi is the co-organiser of the Green Purchasing International Forum "CompraVerde - BuyGreen", that takes place every year, in Rome since 2014. Since its launch, Ecosistemi has led a number of initiatives, such as a series of GPP training seminars known as “GPP from A to Z”, the CompraVerde Award for the best GPP policy and the best green tender, and the Green Contact which is a contact point set up between suppliers and consumers. The event also became the first Italian Forum to obtain the certification for the sustainable management of events in 2009 which is annually maintained and updated in accordance with the ISO20121 standard.
In 2010 Ecosistemi signed an agreement to become the Italian national partner of ICLEI for the Procura+ Campaign. Two Italian local authorities are among Procura+ participants, the Municipality of Cremona and the Province of Rome (stand 2014).
Over the years, adhesions to the Procura+ Campaign by Italian local authorities have decreased, mainly given to the fact that the Italian public administration system is going through a very difficult period characterised by significant financial cuts and administrative changes that make difficult any kind of “out of the ordinary” investment.
Ecosistemi believes that motivation for participating in the Procura+ Campaign for Italian public authorities that are seriously engaged in the implementation of GPP policies shall mainly come from access to EU projects partnerships and visibility at EU level.
Other relevant work
Electronics Watch is an independent monitoring organisation that assists public sector buyers to meet their responsibility to protect the labour rights of workers in their global electronics supply chains more effectively and less expensively than any single public sector buyer could accomplish on its own.
Website: www.electronicswatch.org/en
Contact person: Peter Pawlicki - Director of Outreach and Education
During the last decades the global electronics industry has become one of the largest in the global economy. There are an estimated 18 million electronics workers who generate 25% of global trade in manufactured goods. Electronics brands are some of the most valuable companies in the world. As of 2016, Foxconn, an electronics contract manufacturing company, is the world's second largest private employer.
Unfortunately, workers have helped shoulder the cost of industry growth.
The Electronics Watch solution
Electronics Watch believes that the public sector, in its role as consumer, can help to change this picture. Public sector organisations value social responsibility and sustainability along with transparency and fair competition. They are large consumers of ICT hardware such as portable and desktop computers, printers, display screens, and media storage, and purchase these products through long-term contracts. They can, therefore, create market opportunities for companies that commit to respect labour rights and safety standards in global supply chains, and hold them accountable for any failure to do so.
Electronics Watch organises public sector buyers and gives them the essential tools to create effective market demand for decent working conditions in their ICT hardware supply chains. Public sector affiliate members pool resources through Electronics Watch to obtain reliable intelligence about working conditions at significantly reduced cost. They insert the Electronics Watch Contract Conditions in ICT hardware contracts, requiring their contractors to exercise due diligence to achieve respect for labour rights and safety standards in factories that assemble or make the components of the goods they purchase. When public sector buyers in many countries take action together, based on the same supply chain intelligence and the same enforceable contract requirements, working conditions can improve.
The Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture (IFZ) in Graz is an interdisciplinary research institute dealing with issues of socially and environmentally sound technology design, established in 1988. The prime objective of IFZ’s interdisciplinary team of 22 experts is to contribute to socially and environmentally sound, sustainable and gender-equitable technology design. The IFZ has four research units. One is called “Ecological Product Policy” and its main topic is “Green Public Procurement” (GPP).
IFZ website: http://www.sts.aau.at/
Contact person: Angelika Tisch, Leader of the "Ecological Product Policy" research unit
The institute is mainly financed through research contracts. Their clients and partners include governmental bodies at municipal, provincial, federal and international level along with research institutions and companies. The IFZ receives institutional sponsorship from the Province of Styria and City of Graz. The institute publishes quarterly its periodical “Soziale Technik”.
For more than 10 years, the research unit offers the information centre “Procurement Service Austria” (www.nachhaltigebeschaffung.at) in the course of which public procurers are supported to write green tenders and to procure green products and services. Twice a year, the “Procurement Service Austria” publishes the newsletter "take it!" for the latest information on green procurement. The centre is financed by the Austrian Ministry of Environment.
The IFZ was assigned by the Ministry of Environment to support the process of developing the Austrian Action Plan for Sustainable Public Procurement. The IFZ also supports the current process of developing core criteria for social responsible public procurement.
Besides the “Procurement Service Austria”, the IFZ has participated in several European and national research projects concerning green, social responsible and innovative public procurement.
Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia (LNEG), formerly known as INETI, is the largest public sector research and development institution in Portugal, focused on providing services to the public sector. LNEG works on sustainable procurement in close cooperation with private and public organisations. It was involved in the SMART SPP project and takes part in the GPP 2020 project focussing on low-carbon procurement. LNEG is the national focal point for the Procura+ Network in Portugal.
The Centre for Sustainable Business Development (CENDES) is a department within LNEG whose aim is to be a landmark on Sustainable Development by promoting a more balanced society in economical, environmental and social terms. CENDES is an agent for the adoption of eco-efficiency and sustainable principles in business global management, the creation of new competences for sustainability, the stimulation of (eco) innovation, the integration of social aspects and the promotion of multi-stakeholders dialogue.
LNEG has implemented several projects and activities since 2003, becoming a leader organisation on sustainable procurement. The main activities focus on:
Two training activities on SPP were carried out in Portugal lately: one took place on 27th November 2013 in ISEP, Porto, integrated in the 6th meeting of the Procura+Portugal network and another on 9th April 2014, as part of the 7th meeting of the network.
One of the outputs of the Building SPP is a set of recommendations to the national procurement strategies, aiming to favour and improve SPP implementation in Portugal and Greece. The final conference of the Building SPP project has just taken place on 16th September 2014. The conference was held in Lisbon and was a major national event about sustainable procurement. Topics such as networking, green and social criteria, market involvement and sustainable procurement strategies were addressed.
PlanMiljø was established by CEO Bjørn Bauer in 1990 as an environmental consultancy. PlanMiljø has been involved in several partnerships on SCP with governments; both in terms of development of guidelines; and tools for businesses; as well as strengthening of green procurement in public authorities. PlanMiljø is one of the most experienced players in the field of Green Public Procurement (GPP) in Denmark, and we have supported many public authorities both on a national, Nordic and international level. PlanMiljø is currently managing ‘The Secretariat for Green Public Procurement’ of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (DEPA). The purpose of the secretariat is to promote and facilitate GPP in Danish public authorities. PlanMiljø is the national focal point for the Procura+ Network in Denmark.
We are located in beautiful surroundings in Østrup some 35 km west of Copenhagen, on a smallholding established in the 17th century. The farm and the surrounding fields driven as an organic farm, frame the workspace of the consultants with access to plenty of light and fresh air – to inspire innovatove and sustainable thinking.
PlanMiljø is a small company with a young and enterprising team. Our flat structure makes for an agile and flexible consulting firm, able to pursue innovative ideas, develop and apply new methods, and constantly strive to more than fulfill the expectations of our partners and clients.
In addition to its solid client base of Danish ministries, municipalities and businesses, PlanMiljø has an excellent reputation abroad. We have completed projects in more than 60 countries for Danida, the European Commission, SIDA, the World Bank, and UN agencies. Moreover, we have a wealth of experience as partner in projects for the European Commission and the Nordic Council of Ministers.
In addition, some Strategic Partners may wish to become national/regional focal points for Procura+, with the following additional responsibilities:
Be part of a Network that is at the forefront of a European movement towards developing and implementing sustainable procurement
Influence the strategic agenda of sustainable procurement and innovation procurement and receive high international visibility towards the European Commission, National Ministries and other key organisations such as the United Nations
Priority participation in ICLEI-led projects and speaking at ICLEI sustainable procurement events
Any organisation able to fulfil the roles outlined above at the European, national and/or regional level may become a Strategic Partner, following approval by the Network Management.
All Strategic Partners / Steering Group members will be required to sign an agreement with ICLEI, which will define the roles and responsibilities.
It is estimated that 5-7 days per year will be required to fulfil the role. Strategic Partners are expected to attend two meetings per year (one in person, and one teleconference). Travel costs are to be covered by the Strategic Partners, although where possible ICLEI will try to cover these through relevant funded projects.
For more information, please email procurement@iclei.org, or contact us by phone: +49 761 368 920.
