ICLEI Members Oslo (Norway), Copenhagen (Denmark), Helsinki and Vantaa (Finland), Amsterdam and Haarlem (the Netherlands), Lisbon (Portugal), and Zurich (Switzerland) are working collaboratively to best use public procurement to meet climate and environment goals.

This work is being conducted in the context of the European Commission's Big Buyers for Climate and Environment initiative, and its four new working groups. These working groups enable public buyers to come together to exchange knowledge in four main topic areas: zero-emission construction sites; digital solutions in the healthcare sector; circular construction; and electric heavy-duty vehicles.

The zero-emissions construction sites working group is made up of public buyers who are conducting pilot projects on this theme, sharing lessons learnt from these pilots, and jointly aggregating demand to accelerate the transition to zero-emission construction sites.

The working group exploring digital solutions in healthcare aims to accelerate the acquisition of innovative digital healthcare solutions, with a focus on remote patient monitoring and tools for better health data management and analysis.

Public buyers are also collaborating to reduce embodied carbon and holistically improve sustainability of public construction works, with a focus on public space, roads and infrastructure. This includes a focus on circular, low-carbon solutions for asphalt, concrete, and base materials.

Finally, cities across the world are contending with the need to improve the sustainability of the heavy-duty vehicles necessary for waste collection, street cleaning, and maintenance. In this fourth working group, public buyers are joining forces to accelerate the acquisition of electric vehicles, with the aim of having zero-emission fleets by 2030. This work will furthermore support the development of diverse market options for different EU areas, including peripheral regions.

Although working group membership is now fixed, public organisation interested in learning directly from groups' activities and results are welcome to join the Big Buyers Observer Group. For more information and to join, click here.

ICLEI Europe and EUROCITIES are run the Big Buyers initiative on behalf of the European Commission.

For more information on the Big Buyers working groups, click here.