13 MSEK to greening Baltic Sea states through procurement

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Swedish Environmental Management Council (SEMCo) along with organisations from eight Baltic Sea countries are to develop the concept of green procurement in a new project co-funded by the EU.

Baltic Green Public Procurement, as the project is called, will start in January and go on until 2014. It’ll be based in particular on developing training materials, training of key personnel and implementing green procurement.

SEMCo is a lead partner for the project, co-operating with expert organisations in the field of environment and procurement from Denmark, Norway, Finland and Germany. The total budget for the project is about 13 million SEK.

Countries can learn from each other and thus increase the knowledge and use of green procurement. The project also aims to strengthen the link between procurement and innovation as well as strengthen small and medium sized enterprises, said Peter Nohrstedt, a project director of procurement at the Swedish Environmental Management Council.

Other important parts of the project are life-cycle costs and criteria for green procurement. Local regions will pilot purchasing environmentally friendly products, such as energy efficient products and products with less environmentally hazardous substances.

In practice, the aim of the project is to facilitate network meetings and offer opportunities for work shadowing and learning from each others’ experiences.

Baltic Green Public Procurement is part of the EU strategy to turn the Baltic Sea region into an eco-efficient region. It is part of the Baltic Sea Region Programme which covers issues to do with the environment, economy, accessibility and security in the Baltic Sea countries. The EU Parliament and EU Commission stands behind the strategy that aims to lead to closer cooperation between the Baltic countries and create a model that can be implemented across the EU.

For more information, please contact Peter Nohrstedt, Project Director of Procurement, or Hanna S Backman, Communications Officer, at the Swedish Environmental Management Council.