ICLEI’s Dutch Member cities Nijmegen, Rotterdam, Tilburg and Utrecht are among the 150 governmental bodies in the Netherlands that have formally agreed to implement green and socially responsible procurement in their organisations. The agreement is in line with the Dutch Manifesto on Socially Responsible Procurement, which was launched in December 2016.

As signatories to the manifesto, the cities have established individual local action plans on sustainable procurement. The plans cover three main areas: how sustainable procurement can be used to meet policy goals, how plans are internally organised to include the entire organisation, and the procurement instruments which will be addressed.

In some cases the action plans are also coupled with ambitious aims - In November 2017, Nijmegen launched their action plan with the goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2045. Some of the key activities and goals listed for 2018 to help achieve this include: the introduction of a communication plan on sustainable purchasing, and the organising of workshops, events and conferences, such as the EcoProcura conference on sustainable, circular, and innovation procurement.

For more information and to read the individual sustainable procurement actions plans, click here (in Dutch).