Bio-based solutions in Public Procurement: Is it the way forward to support a circular bioeconomy?
A webinar, organised by the Bioregions Facility, focused on the uptake and ways forward of bio-based solutions in public procurement (PP). The roundtable discussion with three PP experts revolved around concrete examples and successful initiatives, discussing about ways forwards and solutions to overcome existing barriers.
Public procurement (PP) can serve as a powerful tool to speed up the market uptake of innovative and more sustainable products and services, and thus to support the development of a circular bioeconomy. Regional and local governments have a major purchasing power and have the potential to influence the market. While most of them have embraced Green Public procurement practices with some intensity, much more can be done to open public procurement to innovative bio-based and nature-based products and services.
The second Bioregions webinar on PP, held on the 15th of March 2021, focused on the uptake and ways forward of bio-based solutions in public procurement. Together with three panellist experts on public procurement (Oriana Romano – OECD; Lidia Capparelli – Consip Italy; Martin Scherpenisse – Region of Zeeland as part of the bio-based Delta in the Netherlands) the roundtable discussion revolved around concrete examples and successful initiatives, discussing about ways forwards and solutions to overcome existing barriers and recommendations for further actions towards bio-based solutions in public procurement to support a circular bioeconomy.
After a formal opening by representatives of the Bioregions Facility (EFI and the Basque Country), the webinar was structured as a roundtable discussion about five questions related to a Bioregions survey that aimed to understand how actors across Europe perceive bio-based solutions in public procurement.
Based on the webinar and the survey, the Bioregions Facility captured 7 ingredients to successfully include bio-based solutions in regional public procurement. Namely: political will; a systematic approach; active scanning; security and tools; support for the development of solid means of verification; dedicated capacity building, training and knowledge sharing; and awareness raising. The Bioregions Facility explains those 7 ingredients and the key messages of the webinar and the survey in their Reflections from a Bioregions webinar.