Programme

The Dutch Sustainable Public Procurement congress (MVI congress), will take place for the third time on the 3rd of October in Green Capital Nijmegen. Many exciting keynotes, presentations and interactive workshops are programmed (in Dutch), and the Dutch SPP prize will be awarded. The congress is hosted by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and PIANOo, the Dutch Public Procurement Expertise Centre.

The MVI Congress will run all day and will continue with the EcoProcura Conference in the afternoon.

Participants will be welcomed to the 10th EcoProcura Conference, which marks 20 years of the conference series, and will join with the MVI Congress participants.

EcoProcura 2014 explored ‘the opportunities and challenges of using procurement strategically’ and how procurement can be an instrument to achieve strategic goals of sustainable and innovative economies and societies. In 2017 the European Commission released a communication declaring that “public procurement is a strategic instrument”, but that “strategic procurement possibilities are not sufficiently used”. What do these developments mean for procurement as a function within cities and other organisations? Do decision-makers realise the role and impacts that procurement can have towards meeting policy aims? Is procurement becoming more recognised as a professional role with skilled practitioners? Are procurement practitioners daring to ask for, and daring to do, sustainable, circular and innovation procurement? Presenters and panellists will discuss all these questions and consider how procurement evolves as a tool to achieve strategic objectives

Participants can further explore the use of procurement as an effective tool in the strategic decision making process of a public authority through the following interactive breakout sessions:

• Samenwerking met de markt (session in Dutch)

  • Dialoog en samenwerking met de markt zijn essentieel voor begrip van elkaars belangen en behoeften, en voor het ontstaan van noodzakelijk wederzijds vertrouwen bij het doen van pilots en experimenten. Toch komt er in de praktijk vaak nog weinig terecht van deze samenwerking. Welke belemmeringen zijn er in de samenwerking?

• The Dutch SPP approach: SPP as an instrument to contribute to realising policy objectives

  • This session will focus on the tools available to help authorities use their SPP to realise strategic policy goals.  In particular, it looks at the Dutch approach, presenting and discussing the Dutch SPP evaluation tool, the documents for environmental standards, and a new web-tool, amongst others.

• Creating a circular economy through procurement: the Green Deal as a key driver for transition

  • Circular public procurement has a strategic role in supporting the transition towards a circular economy, as recognised by the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy (2015). But how are local governments making this happen in reality?

    This session will provide an overview of how the Netherlands has been supporting procurers through its Green Deal on Circular Procurement, as well as providing participants with practical opportunities to experiment, exchange and improve their knowedge of circular procurement in practice.

• Procurement as a transformation tool for energy markets

  • The Netherlands Action Plan for Responsible and Sustainable Procurement (RSP) is based on the effective and efficient use of RSP as an instrument to contribute to realising policy objectives, including stimulating renewable energy generation. How are cities in the Netherlands and other European using procurement to help meet energy goals?

• Procurement on the move: achieving sustainable mobility

  • European cities are facing major challenges related to transport and mobility, including achieving efficient, regulated and less congested mobility; reducing CO2 emissions; and minimising local emissions of particulate matter (PM), nitrous oxide (NOx) and noise. What role can procurement play in solving these challenges?

    This session will explore different approaches that cities have taken to promoting sustainable mobility through procurement, including:

    ·         Identifying where procurement can have the biggest mobility impact

    ·         Using procurement to promote delivery consolidation

    ·         Creating markets for new, low emission vehicles – electric waste trucks

• Engineering a sustainable future: Low carbon procurement buildings and infrastructure
  • Public procurement has the potential to support Europe’s low-carbon buildings and infrastructure development goals. This session explores procurement as a mechanism to create lead markets for low-carbon building materials and techniques, using city examples to show how it can be done.
• Sustainable from farm to fork: transforming catering and food procurement
  • After energy and transport, food is the sector with the biggest impact on our climate – responsible for over 10% of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. From farm to fork (and, sadly, to bin) food is costly for the earth. What procurement approaches can help to improve climate, resource, ethical and health goals relating to food?

1) Nijmegen European Green Capital – Walking tour
Join the guided walking tour and stroll by some points of interest in and near the city of Nijmegen, Green Capital of Europe 2018.

2) Nijmegen European Green Capital – Biking tour
Join the guided biking tour and pedal past points of interest in and near the city of Nijmegen, Green Capital of Europe 2018. Please note, biking experience is required.

3) Room for the Waal River - Boat tour
The landscape near Nijmegen has been transformed into a unique river park in recent years. Join the boat tour to get the best view of this 'new' Nijmegen, from the water.

4) Honigcomplex – Cultural tour
The Honigcomplex is the new cultural hotspot in Nijmegen until 2022. Join the guided tour of this former factory on the Waal water front, hotspot for entrepreneurs and creative people in Nijmegen.

Making procurement more strategic can be subject to a number of barriers, whether real or perceived. But perhaps the biggest opportunity to increased sustainability and innovation, and the professionalisation of procurement, is empowering the people who need to make it happen. Is managing personalities just as important as managing systems and methods? How can a public sector organisation get started in changing hearts and minds? What are the ways to ensure that an organisation has the right mix of people, the correct procedures in place and the support mechanisms to enable procurers to think and act more strategically? Get inspired by how others have dared to create behavioural change in their organisations.

The Market Lounge provides a place for sharing tools, presenting good practice, procurement processes, research, projects and initiatives. At roundtables a contributor will present their topic and will have three 30 minute slots. Each slot includes a 10 minute presentation followed by 20 minutes of questions and discussion.

Participants can further explore the initiatives, approaches, good practice and tools that can support sustainable and innovation procurement through the following interactive breakout sessions:

• Measuring the impact of SPP
  • The RIVM (Dutch National Institute for Public Health and Environment) has recently published a report on measuring the impact of SPP. This will be presented and a discussion will follow including its meaning for adapting SPP policies.
• Innovate, integrate, motivate: inspiring people to do innovation procurement
  • Innovation procurement can often seem like a challenging proposition, but no matter where you are, or the size of your procurement budget, implementing innovation  is possible. This session will look at the factors likely to influence which approach to innovation procurement is most appropriate in different situations, and how these approaches can be embedded in your organisation.
• The challenge of change: sustainable finance and procurement
  • More details will be uploaded soon
• Digging deeper: supply chain monitoring and verification

  • Verifying the environmental and ethical performance of suppliers is an area that many procuring authorities find difficult due to lack of resources and specialist knowledge. Labels and alternative proof can be asked for, but what information is reliable and what requires further investigation? This session explores this question and will look at criteria and clauses that can encourage suppliers to disclose environmental and ethical supply chain information. It will also consider if and how procuring authorities can require suppliers to acknowledge and mitigate risk situations in supply chains, and drive the creation of company or industry led code of conduct programmes.

• How do networks support organisational and cultural change - examples from around the world
  • Cultural change needs to happen within an organisation, but sometimes external influences, initiatives and opportunities can help to support and inspire those responsible for delivering this change internally. Speaking to people who have gone through similar processes in their own organisations, faced similar problems and – ideally – found good solutions, can be of huge help. This session will hear about different forms of networking, and how these may help contribute to delivering organisational and cultural change.
    
    
• Supporting communities through social procurement
  • This session will shine a light on how cities and other purchasing authorities are supporting their local communities and economies through responsible procurement practices, such as enhancing skills, supporting disadvantaged workers, and encouraging better business practices.

An opportunity for procurement practitioners to propose radical ideas to take procurement into a strategic future in a timed presentation. The format will be a competitive session, with all attendees voting for the best idea.

Come join us at Saint Stephens Church, Nijmegen.
Evening festivities include the 2018 Procura+ Awards ceremony, celebrating the Sustainable Procurement of the Year, Innovation Procurement of the Year and Procurement Initiative of the Year.

Confess your mistakes and tell us how you overcame them! Public authorities have a safe space to openly talk about mistakes made and lessons learnt in procurement. In our experience this can be as valuable as good practice cases.  This is a session about trial and error, and being brave!

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This plenary will bring together all the key discussions and ideas from the conference and look at how we can make it happen in reality.