The European Commission’s DG GROW is organising a series of webinars on “Driving Markets through Public Procurement: the Big Buyers Project”. The first of these webinars, taking place on 28 February, will focus on finding from a Big Buyers Working Group that learnt how to procure a “Zero Emission Construction Site”.

During the webinar, representatives of the group on Zero Emission Construction Sites will present the state of play in seven pilot projects that were launched in different cities, as well as a Joint Statement of Demand asking for a green shift in the construction market. The statement is currently signed by five cities, including ICLEI Members Oslo (Norway), Copenhagen (Denmark), Helsinki and Vantaa (Finland).

This webinar draws on outputs from the Big Buyers for Climate and Environment Initiative, coordinated by ICLEI Europe and Eurocities on behalf of the European Commission. The objective of the Big Buyers project was to promote collaboration between public buyers across the EU in implementing strategic procurement for sustainable solutions. A bottom-up needs assessment of participants resulted in the creation of four working groups, dealing with Zero Emission Construction Sites, Circular Construction, Heavy-Duty Electric Vehicles, and Digital Solutions in the Healthcare Sector. Webinars focusing on the achievements of the rest of these Working Groups will be announced soon.

For more information on the first webinar, and to register (EU login required), click here.