The jury of the 2021 Procura + Awards has revealed the nine finalists for this year. The Procura + Awards, an ICLEI Europe initiative, supported by the EU-funded Procure2Innovate project, recognise excellence in sustainable procurement.
In the category ‘Procurement Initiative of the Year’ the jury has picked the Province of Zeeland (the Netherlands) and the City of Helsinki (Finland). The former is praised for using the SDG’s as the compass of all its purchases, while the Finnish capital is using carbon footprint criteria to promote sustainable public procurement, aiming to take into account the various climate impacts of procurement.
The Supreme Audit Office of the City of Prague (Czech Republic) is a finalist in the category ‘Innovation Procurement of the Year’ for including Building Information Modeling (BIM) in its tender documents to build its first permanent seat with the lowest appropriate life-cycle costs. It is joined by the Santiago de Compostela City Council (Spain) which showed it can use procurement to develop innovative solutions for its citizens, while respecting the complex and specific needs of being a World Heritage City.
In the category ‘Outstanding Innovation Procurement in ICT’ two Spanish authorities are competing for the win.
Murcia Health Service (Murcia) used a co-creation model to improve communication between doctors and epilepsy patients, bringing together procurers from three different regions (Paris, Murcia, Oulu) via the European project InDemand. The Barcelona Provincial Council used innovation procurement to improve its telecare services. The tender identified the challenges but left it up to the bidders to decide how to address them.
Finally, in the category ‘Sustainable Procurement of the Year’, the City of Copenhagen (Denmark) introduced social and environmental considerations into its food procurement, guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Agglomeration of Dinan (France) created a tender for cleaning services, aiming to not harm the environment, support access to employment and to enable companies of different sizes to apply. They are joined by the South Moravian Region (Czech Republic), which identified the need to build a new sanitarium for children with respiratory diseases and challenged the market with the ambition of making it as most aesthetic, user-friendly, and energy-efficient as possible.
More information about the 2021 Procura + Awards can be found at the Procura + website.