ICLEI European Secretariat is a certified EMASplus organisation
Sustainable Procurement
Making your purchasing sustainable means thinking carefully about what you buy, buying only what you really need, purchasing products and services with high environmental performance and considering the social and economic impacts of a purchasing decision.
Communities all over the world are facing the dramatic consequences of climate change, excessive use of natural resources, threats to biodiversity and increasing poverty. These problems cannot be tackled without making the shift to more sustainable consumption and production patterns. In 2002, the European Commission estimated that public authorities in Europe spent some €1,500 billion on goods, works and services – representing over 16% of the total EU gross domestic product (GDP). >>more
Latest news
- Latest news on our activities: Read about our activities through the Sustainable Procurement Update. March 2010 issue now available >>more
- Innovate through public procurement: Trial the latest guidance from the SMART SPP project which includes a new tool to calculate the life-cycle costs and CO2 emissions of products >>more
- Recent event: Procura+ Seminar 2009, 22-23 October, Zürich, Switzerland. Presentations and results available online >>more
- 8th EcoProcura Conference: Interested in hosting the next European conference on sustainable procurement? >>download [pdf file]
- Green Meeting Guide: Practical guide to assist organisers and hosts of small-to-medium-sized meetings in greening their events >>more
What we do
- Campaign: We manage the Sustainable Procurement Campaign, Procura+ - an international movement that supports public authorities in implementing sustainable procurement
- Network: As a sustainability clearinghouse and network of local governments we foster the information exchange and co-operation among public authorities through the Procura+ Exchange (formerly known as the “Buy it Green” –Network)
- Instruments: We develop, pilot and advance instruments for making procurement more sustainable
- R & D: We partner in research & development projects on sustainable procurement geared at public authorities, particularly local governments
- Training: We offer training and develop training material on sustainable procurement for capacity building
- Events: We organise conferences, workshops and seminars for capacity building and to increase public awareness of sustainable procurement
- Consultancy: We offer consultancy services tailored to public authorities
- Policy: We are involved in advocacy and policy making activities
- Newsletter: Read about our activities by subscribing to our regular e-newsletter - the Sustainable Procurement Update