We are pleased to send you the quarterly Update on Procura⁺, the European Sustainable Procurement Campaign, and ICLEI's Sustainable Procurement activities in Europe.

You can also read more about Procura⁺ Campaign developments by visiting the Campaign website www.procuraplus.org. You can find more information about ICLEI's projects on Sustainable Procurement
at www.iclei-europe.org/procurement

ICLEI welcomes your contributions. Just send your news to procurement@iclei.org. News from Procura⁺ Campaign Participants and ICLEI members enjoys publishing priority!

1| Register now: Procura⁺ Seminar 2010 in Helsinki on innovation and procurement

2| Project News:

• Driving energy efficient central IT through SPP
• SCI-Network – Launch of online working groups
• Greening consumption – are public purchasers mediators of change?                                                                      

• Stories of how three cities consume food for their citizens
• Procura⁺ Manual now available in Russian

4| Upcoming Events:

• Conference: Saving costs and the environment – A German-wide exchange on GPP,
  18 November, Bremen
• FAIR PROCURA 2010 - Fair Trade public procurement, a tool for sustainable development,
  24 September, Dortmund

6| Other News

• Social and sustainable procurement high on European Parliament's agenda
• Roll out the green carpet for your participants! UN Green Meeting Guide now in Spanish

7| Help Needed 

• LG Action – opportunity to share your energy-relevant procurement challenges!

8| Internal News

• New project assistant joins ICLEI's Sustainable Procurement team

Bringing  together procurers, policy makers, multipliers and other experts and interested parties, the Procura⁺ Seminar 2010 will focus on Innovation through Procurement.

The City of Helsinki, the current chair of the Procura⁺ Campaign, will host this event from 11-12 November in the Finnish capital.

The aim of the seminar is to exchange ideas, concepts, opinions and experiences on how sustainable procurement can contribute to innovation in the areas of sustainable construction, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and supplier engagement. In order to maximise input and discussion, the programme will feature a mix of interactive plenary and break-out sessions, where successful strategies and practical tools for public administrations will be presented.

In the area of construction, the focus will be on how sustainable procurement can play a role in innovative solutions for public construction projects. As SMEs often face difficulties in bidding for public tenders, a closer examination of how public authorities can make contracts more accessible will be made. Finally, there will also be debates about  engaging suppliers, and those involved in procurement can get suppliers on board through strategic dialoguing.

In addition to the Seminar, a Procura⁺ Participants Meeting will be held in the morning of the second day, to update participants on the latest Campaign news, and discuss future initiatives and strategies. Both participants and non-participants of the Campaign are invited to participate in the Meeting and the Seminar.

Participation in the Seminar is free of charge, however, prior registration with ICLEI is essential to ensure you have a place.

Driving energy efficient central IT through SPP

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SCI-Network – Launch of online working groups

The Sustainable Construction and Innovation (SCI) Network has just entered its pilot phase, with the launch of six online working groups. The network brings together public authorities and experts from across Europe to focus on the procurement actions of sustainable and innovative construction projects. The working group topics are:

1. Sustainable renovation of existing buildings (offices, residential buildings, schools)
2. New technical solutions for energy efficient buildings
3. Procuring innovation - procedures and methods
4. Developing a business case for sustainable construction – life-cycle/whole-life costing
5. Financing and contracting sustainable buildings – innovative solutions
6. Environmental standards - applications in construction procurement

Each of these groups has a dedicated coordinator and a number of public authorities and expert organisations participating. The discussions and solutions reached will be based on the specific needs of the public authorities. Existing best practices and innovative technologies and products relevant to each of the topics will be identified, and practical recommendations shared. These groups are just getting started, so there is still time to get involved!

If you are a public authority or expert with an interest in any of the above topics, please send an email to Abby Semple at sci-network@iclei.org, stating which of the Working Groups you would like to participate in

Stories of how three cities consume food for their citizens

Purchasing sustainable food for public food and catering services, offered by cities and public bodies, can have far reaching effects and also touches numerous issues. In terms of sustainability, environmental considerations, such as low-carbon or organic food play an important role, as do social considerations, such as fair trade or social agriculture. Additionally, public authorities (in some countries more than in others) increasingly acknowledge that they have a responsibility to play a leading role in providing healthy food to children, students, seniors and workers in their communities. Quality is a further issue which is also thrown into the equation, associated either with environmental issues (often organically grown food), healthy food (such as from fresh ingredients) or both.
A number of Procura⁺ Campaign participants have adopted goals or developed strategies impacting on the kind of food served and menus used in canteens, nurseries and senior citizens’ residences. The cities of Helsinki, Lille and Mouans-Sartoux are some of the cities that have recently (or are about to, in the case of Helsinki) changed some of their purchasing practices in this area.

In Helsinki, the city council recently decided in favour of introducing one day a week of only vegetarian meals in school cafeterias – a so-called Veggie Day. While there have always been vegetarian options available daily in Helsinki, introducing a regular vegetarian day aims to reduce the carbon footprint of the city further, and also raise awareness about climate change and healthier diets by sending a clear message to citizens in favour of sustainability. Furthermore, demonstrating to children that vegetarian food can be varied and taste good is hoped to have a positive long-term educational effect.

Two years ago, the City of Lille decided to introduce 50 percent organic food in canteens as well as supplying organic and/or fair trade products at events, and in vending machines. The initiative is being carried by a range of departments in the city council and other stakeholders, such as the school food agency, the environment department, the procurement office, the health department and students from the local university. Some of the milestones reached so far are adapting menus to seasonality, carrying out studies on fair trade criteria for exotic fruits and grains, and making an inventory of local production capacities in order to tailor tendering processes to local capacities – for instance, the city making a commitment to buy certified organic produce in two years (when the supply can meet the demand).

Mouans-Sartoux in France (approximately 10,000 inhabitants), have taken a creative approach to get around the difficulties of obtaining organically grown local food. They grow their own! An agricultural area owned and run by the municipality has been set up to produce organic vegetables for school and nursery meals. The 30 tons of vegetables consumed yearly by schools and nurseries in Mouans-Sartoux will be produced and supplied by the municipality. The approach also has financial benefits, reducing additional costs normally incurred by organic products. Furthermore, and to make it easier for small local producers to access public tenders, tenders these are separated into separate lots for each different type of fruit and vegetable.

To read more about the approach taken by Mouans-Sartoux, click here. If you would like more information about the above cases, please contact franziska.singer@iclei.org

Procura⁺ Manual now available in Russian

Russian speakers now have the chance to find out how SPP can be put into practice by using the Procura⁺ Manual. Following versions in English, German, Catalan, Greek, Croatian, French and Italian, the Manual is now also available in Russian.

A newsletter outlining how to download and best use the Manual will be disseminated among the municipalities of the Ukrainian Network for Local Environmental Sustainability. In Nikolaev, where the translation is based, the translation has been used for sustainable procurement of energy saving equipment. Step by step, other procurement actions will also be carried out using the Manual as a guide.

Conference: Saving costs and the environment – A German-wide exchange on GPP, 18 November, Bremen

Public authorities from across Germany will come together to exchange on good practice, learn how to build on the outcomes of a training series on GPP and get the necessary support to implement capacity-building and other actions.

During the event, generously hosted and supported by the City of Bremen, local authority delegates will have the opportunity to exchange on their experiences in a marketplace, and receive up-to-date information by well-established organisations on legal issues (and overcoming these) and life-cycle costing.

Participants will have the opportunity to share their needs and expectations regarding upcoming research work and training.

This event is the final conference in a series of 20 training sessions which have taken place in different municipalities across Germany this year. The training sessions were jointly prepared by the Ökoinstitut and ICLEI.

The conference will be in German and is open to people from and outside Germany. Participation for public authority delegates is free of charge, however prior registration is essential.

Conference participants will have many opportunities to discuss with European experts how supporting Fair Trade products through public procurement can help public authorities to support sustainable development and make a change for marginalised producers and workers from developing

countries. Parallel workshops focusing on food (catering, canteens, etc.), textiles (workwear and uniforms) and a workshop dedicated to how to get around legal issues, will also form part of the programme.

An extended session will be dedicated to EU member states where Fair Trade awareness is still relatively low, in order to help them raise awareness and about Fair Trade procurement towards their local authorities.

Social and sustainable procurement high on the European Parliament's agenda

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the 18 May based on a report titled "new developments in public procurement". The report was drawn up by Heide Rühle, Member of the European Parliament, on behalf of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection.

The report analyses the situation regarding public procurement in the EU and takes a critical view of what has still to be achieved by the current EU Public Procurement Directives (from 2004), particularly regarding SPP, public-private-partnerships, public-public cooperations, among others.

A couple of important points relevant for taking SPP further are that the report also:

• "Reiterates that public authorities should be encouraged and put in a position to base public procurement on ecological, social and other criteria";
• Welcomes the practical assistance given to public authorities and other public bodies in connection with sustainable procurement - particularly regarding social considerations and fair trade; and
• "Calls on the Commission to put forward initiatives at European and international level with a view to the gradual harmonisation of labels and the criteria on which they are based".

Roll out the green carpet for your participants! UN Green Meeting Guide now in Spanish

In partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), ICLEI published the Green Meeting Guide for organisers of small to medium sized events last June. Following the interest of extending the use of the Guide to the Spanish speaking world, the Guide is now also available in Spanish.

The Green Meeting Guide has been written with the event organiser in mind, and contains detailed check-lists of measures which can be taken to "green" an event, such as steps that should be taken when selecting the venue to setting up the event and communicating with delegates.

To download the Guide in Spanish or English, please visit
www.iclei.org/itc/greening. For more information, please contact francesca.schraffl@iclei.org

LG Action – opportunity to share your energy-relevant procurement challenges!

The post-2012 international climate negotiations are still underway. This is your chance to share your input on energy and sustainable procurement to feed into the Local Government Climate Roadmap through the Local Government (LG) Action project.

The project partners (which include ICLEI) are interested in your views, facts and data on how public procurement - green or otherwise - is or is not working to support local climate and energy action. Local governments have tremendous potential for change through their public purchasing power. They can drive change, create demand and move the market. Therefore, we want to ask you for your input regarding local governments – whether you work for or with local governments – particularly regarding the following questions:

• Do you feel that local governments using their purchasing power today in Europe in favour of sustainability?
  • If yes, how effective is it (can you provide one or two examples)? Can you estimate how much CO₂ your local government has saved through their sustainable procurement actions?
  • If no, what is blocking or hampering action in your local government? Are framework conditions good enough? Is there a lack of political will? Are processes just too complicated?

Your input will be valuable to identify similarities in trends, which in turn can be shared with national governments and the European Union.

Please pool your views, facts and data, using the online questionnaire (www.lg-action.eu) or by emailing them to lg-action@iclei.org

New project assistant joins ICLEI's Sustainable Procurement team

Ling Ng joined ICLEI's Sustainable Procurement team in Freiburg this month. Before ICLEI, Ling worked in sustainable marketing and events for an events social enterprise based in London, where she helped coordinate "green" conferences and workshops for schools, ethical companies and charities. More recently, she was working for the London Sustainability Exchange. Ling has a BSc in Environmental Science and an MSc in Quaternary Science.

Ling can be contacted on procurement@iclei.org

Subscribe? Feedback? Questions? Please let us know!

If you would like to Subscribe to the Sustainable Procurement Update, have any further questions, would like to give feedback on ICLEI's work in Sustainable Procurement or would like to be taken off this mailing list, please contact us at: procurement@iclei.org

The Sustainable Procurement Update is produced by the European Secretariat of ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability. Editors: Franziska Singer, Amalia Ochoa (responsible).

ICLEI is an international association of local governments and national and regional local government organisations that have made a commitment to sustainable development.

More than 1,000 cities, towns, counties, and their associations worldwide comprise ICLEI's growing membership. ICLEI works with these and hundreds of other local governments through international performance-based, results-oriented campaigns such as the Procura⁺ Campaign and programmes.

The Procura⁺ Sustainable Procurement Campaign is an initiative designed to help support public authorities across Europe in implementing Sustainable Procurement and help promote their achievements. The Campaign was established in 2004 to help drive the mainstreaming of sustainable public procurement throughout Europe. Through participating in the Campaign, public authorities can contribute to a growing international movement and help bring about real change on the market.

Copyright © 2010 ICLEI European Secretariat GmbH, Freiburg, Germany. All rights reserved.