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PolskiGREEN PROCUREMENT IN BADALONA’S SCHOOLS
The City Council of Badalona (the third largest city in Catalonia, Spain) has almost ten years of experience in implementing Green Public Procurement (GPP). In 2009 a project was started to encourage GPP in public schools, with the support of Ecoinstitut Barcelona. The aim of the project was to spread GPP knowledge and best practices to all schools in the city.
2009
Badalona City Council, Badalona, Spain
Description of the Green Initiative
Schools
While Spain has not been of the best performers, the outstanding Catalan performance as a Spanish autonomous community calls for the analysis of the driving factors that enabled a high sustainable public procurement uptake at the regional and local level.
Six schools were chosen to participate in a project aimed at analyzing and developing best practice guidelines for the green procurement of five product groups: school materials, building maintenance, cleaning, food, and IT products. In addition, the City Council procured a kit of green school materials available to the six participating schools on demand, also available for other interested schools if they are keen to find out more.
By means of a questionnaire and personal interviews, procurement, and consumption habits for each of five product groups (Paper, IT products, Food & Catering, Cleaning & Waste, building maintenance) was analyzed at each of the schools. Based on this information, detailed procurement and user guidance was developed for each of the five product groups, as summarized:
- Paper -> Reusing paper for notepads and double-sided copying;
- IT products -> Recycle toner and inkjet cartridges and switching monitor off while not in use;
- Food & Catering -> Purchase healthy food through organic agriculture and avoiding use of plastic cutlery and plates;
- Cleaning & waste -> Purchase environmentally friendly cleaning products and set up a waste collection policy;
- Building maintenance -> Using less water and energy.
The information obtained from the procurement analysis led to the elaboration of six individual Action Plans on GPP. The Plans defined detailed measures that each authority (the Catalan Government, the Badalona City Council, or the school) should implement.
The analysis methodology and good practice experiences, from the six participating schools, were compiled in the Green School Procurement Practice Guide, available in Catalan. A Green Schools Network in Badalona is currently being set up, as a further result of this initiative, to monitor the usability of the guide in terms of issues, follow-up, challenges, and achievements in order to revise it accordingly.
More than nine thousand liters of water saved.
For the different product groups, the responsibilities of defining requirements, purchasing and maintenance/ replacement were shared between the regional authority, the City Council and the school itself. Each of the stakeholders should be addressed in future actions, with specific responsibilities assigned to each. The direct involvement of the school community in the purchasing process is also considered vital for the effective implementation of these measures.
High transferability