Inside this issue

1. SMART SPP news

-   Driving innovation through procurement – SMART SPP Guide and Tool to calculate carbon emissions and life-cycle costs now available

-   Austria gets SMART! Implementation phase kicks off in Austria

-   Czech Republic and Hungary - Training and awareness raising initiatives on SMART procurement

2. Get involved in SMART SPP!

3. SMART SPP in your region

-   Denmark: The challenges of purchasing LED lighting systems

-   Spain: Barcelona’s pre-procurement action plan in full swing

-   Portugal: Cascais and Torres Vedras initiate SMART SPP activities in Portugal

-   United Kingdom: Working in partnership to achieve the best results

4. Events



1. SMART SPP news

Driving innovation through procurement – SMART SPP Guide and Tool to calculate carbon emissions and life-cycle costs now available

Public purchasers aiming to be a step ahead of their energy and climate change targets can consider using their procurement procedures to further support and encourage the development of sustainable innovative technologies, and at the same time, keep financial costs and risks at a minimum. The two principal outcomes from the SMART SPP project, in terms of supportive guidance, have been developed with this intention in mind, and are both now available online for use by procurement practitioners.
 
The project outcomes consist of a Guide, which presents a standard procedure designed to encourage innovative energy efficient solutions. It has a strong focus on the ins and outs as well as on the benefits of procurers actively engaging with the market (that is, suppliers and producers) before tendering takes place. Innovative, energy efficient solutions are technologies which meet the needs of the tendering organisation and are highly energy efficient and therefore lead to reduced carbon dioxide emissions (or CO2 equivalents), compared to more mainstream type solutions.

The Guide is accompanied by a Tool (in Excel format supported by a User Guide) that is designed for procurement decision makers to calculate the life cycle costs (LCC) and CO2 emissions of different products and services. The Tool is specifically targeted at evaluating innovative products, which are still in the phase of development and market introduction.

The outcomes are all available in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Danish and can be downloaded at www.smart-spp.eu/guidance. Both the Guide and the Tool are beta versions soon to be finalised in early 2011 following their use by the SMART SPP public authority partners in their innovation focused public procurement actions.

For more information, please visit www.smart-spp.eu or contact Philipp Tepper.

Austria gets SMART! Implementation phase kicks off in Austria

Using sustainable public procurement to spur the final development of new technologies is an idea that has sparked a great deal of interest among national and local governments in Austria since the beginning of the SMART SPP project. The interest has led to the enlargement of the project implementation phase to cover innovation focused procurement activities in Austrian public authorities. These will be technically supported and co-ordinated by an Austrian consulting firm working in the area of sustainable innovation – prove consulting – who will receive support from ICLEI and work in partnership with the SMART SPP project consortium.

In order to place energy efficiency gains at the heart of the Austrian procurement activities on a broad enough scale, extensive co-operation with multipliers is envisaged, such as with the Austrian Association of Cities and Towns (Österreichischer Städtebund), the initiative WienWin (an online database of innovative products and public services) and the Viennese IT cluster (VITE) as well as exchange among other existing initiatives in Austria.

The implementation phase is currently underway in all of the SMART SPP partner authorities and cities (Barcelona, Kolding, Bromley, Torres Vedras, Cascais, London and the Eastern Shires of the UK). This will see the SMART SPP guidance (mentioned in the previous article) for early market engagement used by each of the partners in at least one public tender to purchase an innovative highly energy efficient product or service solution.

For more information, please contact Robert Hörmann from prove.

Czech Republic and Hungary - Training and awareness raising initiatives on SMART procurement

SMART SPP is designed to have a significant positive impact on the markets for greener products and services and on public authorities procurement practices across Europe. The idea is that by tapping into the purchasing power of the project's partner cities and authorities, promoting their experiences nationally and internationally will lead to increased awareness of the potential public procurement has on sustainable innovation, spurring on similar activeness in other cities and public authorities.

With the newly developed guidance and work on pre-procurement under way in Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Denmark (and Austria soon to follow), the stage is now set to begin the training and awareness raising work planned for 2010 in Hungary and in the Czech Republic. The German Federal Association of Eco-counselling (bfub) will lead these activities and work with their member organisations in these two countries – the Hungarian Network of Eco-counselling Offices and the Czech Eco-Counselling Network (STEP). The dates of the training seminars will be announced on the SMART SPP project website.

For more information, please contact Inse Ewen from the bfub. 


2. Get involved in SMART SPP!

Interested public authorities and suppliers of innovative technologies are invited to get involved in SMART SPP.

Become a participating public authority

Public authorities may participate in the implementation phase of the pilot at their own cost – participating in the pilot involves implementing the standard process for early market engagement, driving the adoption of the innovations developed through the project and ultimately incorporating its recommendations in at least one tender.

Benefits of participating include:

  • The opportunity to purchase emerging technologies that deliver improvements in performance over existing technologies, and
  • Access to assistance and advice on using a tailor-made pre-procurement process to increase efficiency in current procurement practices.

Become a participating public supplier

SMART SPP is seeking the involvement of suppliers and developers of emerging technologies in the product and service groups listed above. Suppliers and developers can get involved in pre-procurement discussions with public authorities.

Benefits of participating include:
  • Boost your R&D activities on low emission technologies and solutions, and
  • Increase your presence and visibility at the forefront of sustainable innovations throughout Europe.

Stay informed about SMART SPP

Subscribe to the SMART SPP Update (online) and visit the project website: www.smart-spp.eu. The website gives you access to all the project reports, online newsroom and events calendar and links to related initiatives.

To find out more about becoming a participating supplier or public authority , please contact  Philipp Tepper (Project Coordinator).


3. SMART SPP in your region

Denmark
The challenges of purchasing LED lighting systems

Early in the SMART SPP project, the Municipality of Kolding chose to focus its pre-procurement action on finding innovative, energy efficient alternatives to standard office lighting, such as fluorescent light tubes for room and desk lighting. LED-lighting and passive lighting (light tubes) were the favoured options and were thus explored in more detail.

The Municipality's pre-procurement strategy group held a meeting in December to discuss the practicalities of the procurement action – time plan, financial resources including life cycle costing (LCC), purchase and technical partners (e.g. Danish Centre for Lighting) and purchase volume were all on the agenda.

Kolding's initial plan was to exchange their conventional fluorescent light tubes for LED light tubes. However, following extensive consultation with lighting experts from the Danish Centre for Lighting, as well as testing done on municipal premises, the plan was too premature for the type of technology offered on the market. Within the timeframe of SMART SPP, it seems that the LED lighting tubes sought cannot match the efficiency levels of their counterparts – Kolding's own tests showed that 25 per cent more armatures would be required to achieve the lighting (lumen) levels necessary. Purchasing the LED technology would require a much higher financial investment than was foreseen (incurring higher costs for materials and electricians) making the payback time too long and therefore not feasible. Finally, the decision taken by the Municipality is to pilot the pre-procurement procedures by purchasing LEDs, to replace standard office light bulbs (E27, E14) and low voltage lamps.

Cities and other public bodies in Denmark interested in finding out more or teaming up with Kolding should contact Bente Møller Jessen from the Municipality of Kolding.

Spain
Barcelona’s pre-procurement action plan in full swing

Barcelona's City Council with the support of the Ecoinstitut Barcelona (Spanish regional coordinator in SMART SPP) have commenced work on two public purchasing actions, aimed at promoting sustainable innovation and testing the SMART SPP Guide and Tool.

The first relates to the installation of charging points for electric vehicles. During the past few months, market information regarding supply has been collected, an assessment of the needs in terms of infrastructure has been carried out and a series of bilateral meetings as well as a seminar with suppliers, manufacturers and service enterprises have been held in order to inform the market of the upcoming procurement actions, and to confer about more specific information such as the functional and performance-based core specifications. Currently, Barcelona's Energy Agency together with the City's Environment Department are finalising the tender documents, in time for their (expected) publication in March 2010.

The second purchasing action relates to vending machines using LED lights. This contract involves a partnership between Barcelona's Public Health Agency and the City's Environment Department, who have been working together to define the  environmental requirements of the new machines. They have also  held bilateral meetings with interested suppliers and installed one of the new machines in order to pilot the new technology. February will see an additional vending machine piloted by the Environment Department. The results of the pilot activities will be communicated to other vending machine suppliers which in turn will lead to publication of a call for tender (by end of 2010) to contract municipal vending machines, taking into account environmental, social and health considerations.

For more information, please contact Helena Barracó from Barcelona City Council or Aure Adell from the Ecoinstitut Barcelona.

Portugal
Cascais and Torres Vedras initiate SMART SPP activities in Portugal 

The Portuguese local government project partners, Cascais and Torres Vedras, have begun putting their innovation focused sustainable procurement local action plans into place by setting up their working groups and scheduling a workshop inviting possible suppliers.

Cascais will refurbish the outside area of the Environmental Centre of Pedra do Sal with LED lighting technology. The pilot project shall include the installation of 43 LED luminaries.

A multidisciplinary team has been set up within the Municipality which includes participation from staff working for Cascais energy agency, the lighting, public works and maintenance departments, and the company responsible for the management of Pedra do Sal. The team has begun discussing  the procurement needs, as well a preliminary definition of purchasing criteria. The main LED suppliers have been identified and supplier engagement activities are planned.

The Municipality of Torres Vedras, in Lisbon, plans to purchase a highly energy efficient mini-bus for passenger transportation inside Lisbon's historical city centre.

Technicians from Cascais and Torres Vedras working on procurement, environment and public works will be invited to a training session on the use of the SMART SPP LCC-CO2 Tool on the 4 March. A joint supplier workshop will follow the training on the 25 March which will see parallel sessions on both electric vehicles and LED lighting.

For further information, please contact Paula Trindade from INETI – National Institution for Engineering and Industrial Technology (Instituto Nacional de Engenharia e Tecnologia Industrial). 
United Kingdom
Working in partnership to achieve the best results

Since the partners last met in Barcelona, in September, the UK SMART SPP team of Global to Local; the Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO); and the London Borough of Bromley, together with the Associate Partner the Greater London Authority, have been busy planning arrangements for the potential procurement of a large number of electric vehicles for the London Metropolitan Police Authority. In a new development, the purchasing unit at Bromley, led by Dave Starling, are in discussion with the Police authority with a view to applying the SMART SPP principles of pre-procurement engagement outlined in the SMART SPP Guide and Tool. These will be used to help to achieve a result which will maximise the benefits of collaborative working to obtain the right sustainable products for the right price.

The UK partners have been surprised by the fast march of progress made recently in providing sustainable vehicles which meet rigorous performance specifications whilst being fit for purpose. By bringing together procurers and suppliers, the team intend to ensure that pre-procurement engagement is used to the full. This will include joint workshops in June this year (on electric vehicles and LED lighting) where ideas will be shared by all stakeholders in the project, whether on the supplier or procurer side of the process.

For more information, please contact Peter Joyce from Global to Local.


4. Events

World Sustainable Energy Days
2-5 March 2010, Wels, Austria

The Solar Thermal Conference in Wels, one of the events held within the World Sustainable Energy Days this year, will present innovative technologies and solutions, such as solar cooling, solar process heat and innovative approaches to thermal storage. Market trends in Europe and other world regions, as well as innovative financing solutions and policies and programmes promoting solar thermal, will form the focus of discussion.


The World Sustainable Energy Days will also include two other events - the European Pellet Conference, and the conference "Building Renovation - towards low energy consumption" - poster presentations, technical site-visits and an exhibition and trade show on energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.

Website: www.wsed.at

CIE 2010-Lighting Quality and Energy Efficiency
14-17 March 2010, Vienna, Austria

The organisers wish to develop energy efficient lighting technologies and standards, without sacrificing safety and security, through the intelligent use of new technologies and a scientific understanding of the varied human needs for different types of lighting in different settings.

CIE 2010 will feature:

  • Surveys of experimental projects
  • Lighting quality criteria
  • Future possible lighting schemes
  • Case studies of energy-efficient lighting
  • Review of energy-efficient lighting control systems
  • Energy efficiency and environmental compatibility
Website: vienna2010.cie.co.at
E-mail: CIE2010@dm-and-c.at

The EU Sustainable Energy Week
22-26 March 2010, Brussels, Belgium

The EU Sustainable Energy Week in Brussels includes a high-level intelligent energy policy conference, the presentation of the Sustainable Energy Europe Awards, as well as thematic workshops focusing on energy efficiency and renewable energy and EU funding and networking seminars. A detailed programme will be posted in 2010.


Website: www.eusew.eu 
E-mail: attendees@sustenergy.org

Procurement Leaders Forum

26 May 2010, London

The Procurement Leaders Forum will bring together the most forward thinking global procurement executives who will share their experiences, benchmark and exchange their views on how to get procurement to the next level. While the main target group of this event are are private sector procurers it could also be interesting for public sector procurers. Topics on the conference agenda will include:

  • The next big thing: The steps procurers must take to develop a culture of innovation
  • The simple life: From cost cutting to value creation: Procurement's role in a post-recession world
  • Sustainable sourcing: How to step up your green procurement efforts while maintaining a business focus
  • Improving efficiency: Discovering the value of the latest software-based procurement tools

Website: www.procurementleaders.com/events/forums/london2010  



Supported by: 		Intelligent Energy Europe
An initiative of: 		Procura Plus campaign
Intelligent Energy Europe Municipality of Kolding The National Institute for Engineering, Technology and Innovation Global to Local Ecoinstitut Barcelona ICLEI European Secretariat Barcelona City Council London Borough of Bromley Cascais Energy Agency Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation German Federal Association of Eco-Counselling Öko-Institut e.V.
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