Local and regional governments as service providers

What can local and regional authorities do to stimulate green public procurement? This is one of the main questions that will be addressed at the 'Green Public Procurement Conference - Turning Policy into Practice', which will take place on 3 and 4 April 2006 in Graz, Austria.

 

The conference will focus on strategies for the implementation of green public procurement (GPP). The final report of a study on GPP will be presented.

 

The report includes a database of green criteria for the products and services most relevant for public procurement as well as examples of good practice in that field. These criteria can help public purchasers -greening' their tendering procedures, as the study concluded that the lack of access to environmental criteria is a major barrier for them.

 

Furthermore various parallel sessions will be held during the conference addressing experiences with green public procurement in the field of amongst others energy, public transport, food procurement and cleaning services.

 

Amongst the main speakers figure the mayor of Graz, Siegfried Nagl, the director general of the federal Ministry of Agriculture and Environment of Austria, Leopold Zahrer, deputy mayor of the City of Barcelona, Imma Mayol and ICLEI regional director Europe, Gino Van Begin.

 

Practical information

Dates and times: from Monday 3 April at 13.30 to Tuesday 4 April at 16:30

Venue: Grazer Congress, Albrechtgasse 1, A-8010, Graz, Austria

Language: English

 

Public authorities can do much to stimulate green public procurement. With their enormous purchasing power, ministries, local authorities, schools, hospitals, etc. could have a real influence by introducing new and sustainable environmental technologies onto the market that strengthen the European competitiveness. According to the GPP study however, only seven out of the EU's 25 Member States practice a significant amount of green public procurement.

 

The conference is a joint initiative of the European Commission and ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) with the support of the Austrian Presidency. Deadline for registration is 29 March 2006.

 

The registration form as well as the full programme can be downloaded on the website of the ICLEI conference.