Next week ICLEI Europe’s entire Sustainable Economy and Procurement (SEP) team will be on the road in Belgium and the Netherlands highlighting the wide range of its work.
The ICLEI-coordinated CityLoops project will meet in Apeldoorn for its third study visit. The Dutch city is circularly reconstructing a residential street, using tools such as a lifecycle CO2 calculator, a material passport and a material databank to support it. Additionally, from a bio-waste perspective, the city is collecting leaves, grass, and Japanese knotweed to process them into bokashi (a soil improver producing carbon storage and greener parks) and biochar (an alternative raw material for products in the agricultural, wastewater, health, and cosmetics industries).
During this study visit, Apeldoorn will showcase its processes and results and share its knowledge and insights with the other CityLoops cities and replicators. The aim of these study visits is to share knowledge among local governments and other project partners to encourage and enable cities across Europe to apply the lessons learned to their own contexts.
In Amsterdam, the AI4Cities project will host its final event as a partner of the World Summit AI (WSAI). As part of AI4Cities, ICLEI members Copenhagen (Denmark), Helsinki (Finland) and Stavanger (Norway), joined forces with Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Tallinn (Estonia) and Greater Paris (France) to go through a Pre-Commercial Procurement process to find innovative AI solutions that can help them reduce emissions in their energy and mobility domains.
During two days (12 & 13 October) at WSAI, the project cities and the seven solutions selected to be piloted will take part in panel discussions and be present at stand A30 to showcase the project, highlight how AI solutions can be applied in public-private partnerships, and provide more information into how AI-based technologies can be used to make cities more sustainable and livable. The hybrid Ai4Cities Academy taking place on 13 October (10-12 CET) will also be interesting for ICLEI members as the cities will share their knowledge, experiences and main conclusions from their three-year journey.
On the same dates as WSAI, in Brussels public buyers from all over Europe will gather for the Procura+ Seminar. During the seminar, organised by ICLEI Europe, hosted by the Municipality of Schaerbeek in Brussels (Belgium), and carried-out in collaboration with the COACH project (in which ICLEI is a partner), the 2022 Procura+ Award winners will be revealed. There are nominees in four categories: Circular Procurement of the Year (new this year), Innovation Procurement of the Year, Procurement Initiative of the Year, and Sustainable Procurement of the Year.
Among the nominees this year are ICLEI members Malmö (Sweden), Tampere (Finland), Lisbon (Portugal), Copenhagen (Denmark), Ghent (Belgium) and Utrecht (The Netherlands). Aside from the Awards, the underlying theme of the Procura+ seminar this year will be Farm to Fork procurement and discussions on collaborative agri-food initiatives anchored in territorial food systems. The seminar will furthermore provide room to connect, exchange, and act on other topics relevant to implementing public procurement. The agenda is driven by Procura+ network participants and is based on their needs.
More information about these projects and initiatives can be found on their respective websites: