The winners of the 2017 Procura+ Award were announced at an award ceremony held last night in Tallinn (Estonia) in the context of Estonia’s Presidency of the EU. The ceremony was held as part of the eafip Conference on Innovation Procurement.
The jury, made up of an international panel appointed by ICLEI, the coordinator of the Procura+ European Sustainable Procurement Network, rewarded procurers from Finland, the Netherlands and the UK. Each took home one award respectively: Sustainable Procurement of the Year, Innovation Procurement of the Year and Tender Procedure of the Year. The winning public procurers were:
Sustainable Procurement of the Year:
Municipality of Hyvinkää, Finland for their procurement of an eco-labelled pre-school building.The first Nordic Swan eco-labelled pre-school in Finland was constructed after a market dialogue process and included sustainability measures on energy use, chemical products, building products and health factors.
Innovation Procurement of the Year:
Ministry of Defence, Netherlands for their procurement of textiles from recycled fibres. Awarded for two contracts supplying 100,000 towels, 10,000 cloths and 53,000 overalls to Dutch military personnel, this public procurement of innovation created estimated savings of 233 million litres of water and 69,000 kg CO2, based on a technical requirement of textiles containing at least 10% recycled post-consumer textile fibres.
Tender Procedure of the Year:
Public Health Wales (National Health Service, UK) for their procurement of remanufactured office furnishings. Through the use of a supplier open day and the contracting of a consortium of social enterprise organisations, Public Health Wales was supplied with over 2,500 items of furniture, fittings and office equipment for an office move, with only 6% new purchases. This circular economy approach diverted 41 tonnes of waste from landfill with a CO2 saving of 134 tonnes, while creating full time jobs for seven disabled and long term unemployed people.
Viljar Lubi, from the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications congratulated the winners, saying, „This year's winners show the diversity of areas in which Public Procurement is being deployed with quantifiable value in financial and CO2 savings and also against wider strategic objectives. The Procura+ network's core task of assisting public authorities to introduce sustainability and innovation into their public expenditure makes a real contribution to the European Circular Economy agenda. The new mindset the winners bring to the world of public procurement is an asset by itself".
Jaroslav Kracun, European Commission's DG Grow said: „Every winner in this year's awards is to be congratulated for their practical implementation of sustainability and innovation measures which add social and environmental value to their respective communities. These winning projects serve as examples of how public authorities across Europe can achieve social and environmental goals through innovation and sustainable procurement.”
The Procura+ European Sustainable Procurement Network has 43 public authority participants, 11 strategic partners and one regional network across Europe, having an impact on a combined population of over 40 million people. The network is coordinated by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability.