We wrote recently about the EcoProcura 2018 conference on sustainable, circular and innovation procurement, which takes place from 3-5 October in Nijmegen (Netherlands). This marks 20 years of the conference series, bringing together over 400 procurers, policy makers, businesses, researchers and international organisations.
The event provides a unique opportunity for participants to gather and share essential information on implementing sustainable public procurement and procurement of innovation. Procurers from all levels of government, businesses and suppliers, and representatives from the European Commission and European Parliament will be there to discuss sustainable public procurement and identify ways of using procurement as an effective tool in the strategic decision-making process of a public authority.
The interactive breakout sessions for the first two days have now been announced: October 3rd, 16:20 – 18:00 and October 4th 14:00 – 15:40. Some of the sustainable, strategic, circular and innovation procurement-related topics to be explored include: circular economy, mobility, buildings and infrastructure, measuring the impact of procurement, food and catering, sustainable finance, social procurement, and energy. But you can find the full list of breakout sessions and more information about each one on the conference programme.
The breakout sessions are a good opportunity to learn about best practices and approaches for strategic procurement across key product and service sectors. For example, one of the sessions, Measuring the impact of sustainable public procurement (SPP), discusses the findings from a report from the RIVM (Dutch National Institute for Public Health and Environment) on measuring the impact of SPP, which historically is difficult to achieve. It will also include a discussion on how to adapt SPP policies.
Also very beneficial, we think, will be the session on: Innovate, integrate, motivate: inspiring people to do innovation procurement — this should prove to be another insightful and useful discussion on a topic we often find difficult to fulfill – inspriring our teams to understand and see the benefits of innvation procurement and embedding an appropriate approach in the organisation.
The conference will offer plenty of opportunity for good practice exchange, dialogues between business and the public sector and finding out about the latest initiatives and projects. More details can be found here on the EcoProcura 2018 website, and you can register for the conference here before August 31 to enjoy the preferential rate.
And if you are going to attend, do look out for Public Spend Forum representatives and come and say hello, we look forward to meeting you.
* image courtesy of The European Union