Ville de Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, 50 km from the Atlantic coast. The city has a population of approximately 283,000 inhabitants (based on 2009 figures). It employs 4,686 officers and has an annual budget of €451 million.
Sustainable procurement activities
The City of Nantes began implementing its Sustainable Procurement Policy in 2001. Following an initial phase of experimentation, identifying products and service testing, the city set up a delegation for the Fair Trade movement in 2004. In 2006, the city joined forces with the city of Angers and the Loire region to found the Great West Network ‘Public Order and Sustainable Development’ (Réseau Grand Ouest ‘Commande Publique et Développement durable’). With a new sustainable public procurement strategy in place since 2008, Nantes is also taking steps to ensure that its strategy falls within France’s overall policy on sustainable development (Agenda 21) and Nantes’ Climate Plan (Plan Climat de Nantes Métropole).
In December 2009, the City of Nantes was awarded the title of ‘Fair-trade Town’ (Territoire de commerce équitable) following a campaign lasting several months initiated by the European Comission, Max Havelaar and Artisans of the World (Artisans du Monde). Around the same time, a discussion panel was created for fair-trade and sustainable procurement with the aim of introducing a forum for procurers from both the public and private sector and institutional and association partners. In addition, the city organised an event entitled ‘Fair-trade and Sustainable Procurement’ (Commerce équitable et achats durables) in late 2009. It brought together 80 participants, decision makers and procurers from the public and private sectors.
More and more sustainable products are being purchased in a growing number of services. Often, as soon as the market for such products open up, environmental and social clauses are inserted into tender documents. However, despite real progress, procurers often face barriers particularly with regards to inadequate supply demands, costs, practices or simply the lack of supplies.
Some significant steps Nantes is taking:
- Public Food Catering
Organic products such as dairy, bread, carrots, cabbage and chicken will be purchased as the market becomes ready. Seasonal products are encouraged and where this is not possible, imported products like coffee, tea, fruit juices and chocolate should be from fair trade sources.
- Textiles
After the successful production of 850 promotional organic and fair-trade cotton t-shirts at the Rugby World Cup in autumn 2007, the dynamics of the textiles market changed. Today, 90% of cotton t-shirts and sweatshirts (approximately 1000 pieces) worn by governmental officials are either from organic or fair-trade sources. The green spaces services and the department of workshops and maintenance are expected to follow suit.
- Benefits service and equipment / maintenance products
Terms of inserting work day (writing a charter ...): included in all works contracts ecologically responsible products: progress approach with supplier, including staff training (eg use of diluents in schools , kindergartens, gymnasiums, swimming pools ...)
- Wood
The certification of sustainable forest management is required: PEFC timber for European wood products and FSC for exotic products. If the raw wood markets start to meet these requirements satisfactorily (70%), much work remains to be done for wood products (40%).
- From green procurement to responsible consumption
This ranges from consumption reduction, recycling, consumption of tap water as opposed to bottled water, producing more durable products, considering recyclability, water recovery, recycling of ink cartridges (70% of the economy), planning staff travel, shredding green waste to using sawdust instead of water and herbicides.
