PROJECT RESULTS 

The Building SPP project was concluded in September 2014. In order to achieve its objectives the project performed a number of activities and the attained results confirm its success and the potential for growth of SPP in both countries. All partners are very pleased with the outcome of the project and will make use of the attained experience to continue to promote SPP either by practicing it directly or by supporting other organisations and stakeholders in their ventures into the field.

Project's video

Watch the Building SPP project's video now and get to know the first hand experience of our public partners!
(Note: Video has subtitles available in English, Portuguese and Greek. Select your preference by clicking the Definitions  button on the youtube player.)

SPP NETWORKS

One of the fundamental actions of the project was the establishment of SPP networks in Portugal and Greece in order to provide:

• Exchange of practical experiences;
• Capacity building in SPP among public procurers and other technicians;
• Awareness of SPP benefits among public authorities’ top managers;
• Dissemination of best practices.

Results

• The creation of the Procura+ Portugal (33 participating public organizations) and Procura+ Greece (114 representatives from local authorities) networks. Activities encompassed: regular meetings, thematic workshops, selected discussion topics and procurers training sessions.
• Good Practices Catalogue– the participation of various organisations in the networks allowed for the collection of  22 good SPP practices from Portugal and 8 from Greece. These will help any public organization to search for inspiration and examples to start or improve their own SPP activities.  

For more detailed information and reports on performed activities go to Action 2. SPP Networks.

You can access the Good Practices Catalogue at:

>> Portugal

>> Greece

MARKET INVOLVEMENT

The project promoted actions for the discussion between public procurers and suppliers on possible environmental and social criteria to include in procurement procedures.

Performed activities:

• Definition of priority products and services and key suppliers identification;
• Establishment of working groups for specific products/service categories;
• Discussion of sustainability criteria and verification pertaining to the categories of priority products and services.

Results

As a result of the work carried above, the project teams compiled a study on the preparedness level of the Portuguese and Greek market to fulfil the EU GPP sets of criteria and also social criteria for the following priority products and services categories: 

• Copying and graphic paper
• Cleaning products and Services
• Office IT equipment
• Food and catering services
• Construction (only Portugal)
• Street lighting (only Greece)

It is intended that this study not only informs the organizations that develop environmental and social criteria, but also helps to ease the work of public authorities that are interested in SPP, by providing them with information on what are the criteria that suppliers have more or less difficulty to comply with.

Accompanying this study is a set of reports with information on defining priority categories, market studies and sustainability criteria in procurement.

>> To access this information go to Action 3. Market involvement.

SPP TOOLBOX One of the main results of the project is the SPP Toolbox, a step-by-step tool to guide local authorities and public organisations in the development of sustainable procurement at strategic and operational level. This tool is now available as a web application and is free of access to all public entities. It is available in Portuguese, Greek and English. >> For more information on this tool please visit: SPP Toolbox website

PILOT PROJECTS

The SPP toolbox was tested and applied in the five local authorities that were partners to the project in Portugal and Greece. Within this scope, each partner implemented a pilot-project where it used the SPP Toolbox to develop a SPP strategy for its organisation. This allowed assessing how the organisations developed during the period of implementation of the pilot projects and how they are progressing towards achieving the targets set in their SPP Municipal Policy, which is also a result of the implementation of the SPP strategy.

Results

All 5 local authorities developed:

• A Sustainable Procurement Policy;
• A Sustainable Procurement action plan;
• Training;
• Market involvement activities;
• Monitoring and reporting;
• Sustainable procurement tenders – 9 in total:

Portugal

• Municipality of Torres Vedras - Urban pest control services, uniforms(textiles), school meals;
• Municipality of Loures - surveillance services, school transportation and pest control services
• LIPOR - cleaning services

Grécia

• Municipality of Agia – public lighting;
• Municipality of Elefsina –public lighting;

>> Detailed reports on each of these pilot-projects can be downloaded in Action. 5 - Pilot Projects in the Documents page or by clicking the links above.

SPP TRAINING PACKAGE The SPP Training Package is a written document containing training material on Sustainable Procurement, and is targeted to top managers, politicians, procurer’s officers and technicians from other departments. It is Available in Portuguese, Greek and English. >> Download the SPP Training Package or access it in e-book format.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Building SPP aimed to make contributions for SPP at the macro level. To do so actions were taken to gather a set of recommendations for the Portuguese and Greek Green Public Procurement Action Plans and SPP policies in general.

The technical partners (LNEG in Portugal, ERS and EPTA in Greece) developed the set of recommendations based on consultations with stakeholders that took place in:

• SPP networks meetings;
• Training sessions;
• Meetings with the working groups of the market involvement action (Action 3);
• A One-Day Workshop specially dedicated to the theme of recommendations.
• The project’s final conference.

>> Download the recommendations for the National Procurement Strategies :

>> Portugal

>> Greece

COMMUNICATION AND DISSEMINATION

The project contemplated a comprehensive dissemination strategy that would achieve a high visibility for the work done and its outcomes at local, regional and international levels. This strategy was comprised of different communication channels (media, press, internet, events, etc.), and will have an implementation life well past the project’s completion.  

Results:

• Project’s website;
• Mailing list with contacts from key actors within the public procurement area of both countries;
• References to the project in the media and press;
• Promotion of the project in national (portugal and greece) and european conferences;
• Organized conferences:
  • Two half-project conferences;
  • Two final conferences.
• Information leaflets in English, Portuguese and Greek:
• Cd-rom with the SPP Toolbox and SPP Training Package;

The book “Sustainable Public Procurement: Training guide for public authorities”, one of the materials produced during the project, was published by LNEG at the end of the project. It is based on the SPP Training package and it’s specially aimed at Portuguese authorities. Moving forward the book will be handed out completely free of charge interested parties and as way to promote SPP and the Building SPP project.

 Final Conferences

Building SPP contemplated the organization of 4 conferences, 2 in each country and divided between Half Project Conference and Final Conference. The final conferences took place in September 2014 announcing the conclusion of the project.

In Portugal the final conference entitled “Sustainable Procurement: A Challenge to the Public Administration” Portugal, was held on the 16^th of September 2014, at the Museu do Oriente in Lisbon. The event consisted in a day of presentations, debates and workshops, displaying the initiatives and results of the project, and also the best that can be done in the field of Sustainable Public Procurement at the national and European levels. The event was attended by 143 participants, representing public and private organizations, coming from various fields like public procurement, logistics and environment. To know more about this event and to have access to the presentations go to:
>> Final Conference in Portugal summary 
>> Final Conference in Portugal Report.

In Greece the final conference was hosted by the City of Athens in the INNOVATHENS center on the 29^th September 2014. The conference took place under the auspices of the Regional Union of Municipalities of Attica and the City of Athens. This conference was dedicated to presenting the results and learning lessons of the project in Greece and Portugal, and also to Highlighting the benefits of SPP not only for the public sector, but also for the environment and the society as a whole. Added aspects were the demonstration of the new e-procurement platform, and the outlining the importance of social enterprises and the inclusion of social criteria in public tenders. The conference was attended by 72 participants, among them high level representatives of the Greek Central and Local Government.
More information on this event can be accessed in the:

 >> Final Conference in Greece Report.

>>Go to Action 8. Communication and Dissemination on the Documents page to see more information. There you'll find detailed reports on the Dissemination strategy and Organized conferences, the information Leaflets and other relevant subject matters.