PUBLIC PROCUREMENT NEWS

  

News

9 November 2012

Purchasing goals should be defined earlier to boost eco-innovation claims EU project

Public authorities need to set out eco-innovation criteria much earlier in the procurement process to achieve results, according to ECOPOL, a European Union funded project. Tomi Tura, the coordinator of ECOPOL, argues that focusing on the earlier stages of procurement is vital to utilsing Green Public Procurement (GPP) to effectively push eco-innovation.

β€œThe biggest opportunities for ambitious innovation-boosting GPP lie in the phase where we define what we are really aiming to purchase, how we communicate to the market our needs and activate it to react, and how we change our attitudes to accept – and to manage – the higher risks that purchasing innovations often includes,” Tura says.

Vienna's WienWin programme, a project to analyse and test promising eco-innovation policies and tools, was applauded by ECOPOL as a shining example of early phase engagement. WienWin develops a dialogue with innovative companies on the new ideas that could shape future products and public services. Finland's RAKLI Procurement Clinic, which runs workshops with companies to explain challenges it hopes to tackle, was also praised.

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