Shared Learning, Stronger Impact: Advancing Sustainable Procurement Together

The ChemClimCircle-2 project is working with partners to develop and test tools and operational models that can be used to integrate environmental goals into practical procurement processes and criteria. Procurement pilots carried out in various municipalities enable the evaluation of solutions in real-world situations.

Throughout the project, partners have shared their experiences and supported one another in the planning and implementation of the pilot projects. Support groups have provided peer support and expert assistance, and through them, experiences with procurement have been shared and, for example, environmental criteria and eco-labels have been discussed together.

The implementation of the CCC-2 project has sparked growing interest in chemical criteria and the strengthening of environmental considerations across many organizations. The criteria used in the project pilot procurements have sparked discussion on how they could be applied more broadly to other procurement activities as well. Among other issues, the pilots have raised awareness and brought new perspectives on the development of criteria.

The project highlights the need to increase cooperation between procurement units, as many competitive bidding processes target the same products and markets. Learning from others’ experiences and best practices saves time and resources and supports higher-quality procurement.

From the perspective of the environmental impacts of procurement, the role of the contracting authority is central. Correct use and storage of products directly affect how significant the environmental impacts of procurement ultimately are. Training and informing the contracting authority are therefore an essential part of successful procurement.

Furthermore, the implementation of sustainable procurement requires that the organization’s leadership recognizes its importance and incorporates it into its strategy and objectives. Management support ensures that sustainability is not treated as a standalone issue but becomes part of the organization’s permanent operating model, allowing procurement to genuinely advance strategic environmental goals.

Tips for collaboration form the Finnish cities of Helsinki and Turku:

• It is worth leveraging the experience of neighbouring municipalities’ procurement units: municipalities purchase very similar services and products. Therefore, it is useful to find out whether other contracting authorities have tendered similar procurements and whether they could share their invitation to tender documents or criteria. Sharing both successes and challenges is important—practical experiences of what worked and what should be avoided are especially valuable.
• Joint market dialogues are effective: organising events together also saves resources and sends a consistent message to the market.
• Networking strengthens professional competence: it lowers the threshold for getting in touch and facilitates the coordination of joint procurements.

Author: Ada Potinkara, Student assistant at Turku University of Applied Sciences

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