Improving the sustainability of information and communication technology (ICT) is critical, not only to face the climate emergency, but also due to the positive knock-on effects of doing so. For example, by considering sustainability across ICT, public buyers can build more sustainable procurement overall.

In a recent interview, Jo Versteven of the Belgian Federal Institute for Sustainable Development (FISD), explains how Sustainable ICT has become an important topic for Belgium’s (procurement) policy agenda, referring to how this has been supported by ICLEI.

The interview makes note of an achievement from June 2021, in which the Belgian Minister for Sustainable Development, Zakia Khattabi, signed the Circular and Fair ICT Pact, an international partnership to accelerate circularity, fairness and sustainability in the ICT sector with a focus on public procurement.

Versteven notes that to translate these ambitions into concrete actions, Minister Khattabi asked the FISD to set up two working groups. He recalls that Minister Khattabi called for: “Firstly, a Belgian Buyers Group with about 80 local, regional and federal government buyers/procurers to exchange best practises and tender information on circular and fair ICT procurement. And secondly, a European working group on socially responsible ICT procurement with about 27 European buyers of ICT equipment, together with ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability. The second group was considered to be important because of potential negative side effects of (green) buying in the ICT mining, production and assembly facilities – for example, using child and/or forced labour. Both groups will deliver their reports and recommendations by the end of the year.”

In the interview, Versteven further discusses how the FISD is helping to integrate sustainability in the procurement portfolio of federal public buyers, how Belgium is building on the EU Clean Vehicles Directive to green its car fleets, and the importance of monitoring to better understand the success of sustainable interventions.

For more information, read the full interview in the Green Public Procurement (GPP) newsletter, accessible here.