City of Reykjavik
The capital of Iceland, Reykjavik, is made up of approximately 120,000 inhabitants. The City employs over 8,000 staff and has an annual procurement budget of over 70 million Euros (excluding utilities and companies owned by the City). Green public procurement (GPP) was first introduced in Reykjavik in 2003. Local conditions in Reykjavik make the City quite unique from other cities and towns in Europe as 82% of all primary energy use in Iceland derives from sustainable energy sources such as hydro-electric and geothermal.
Sustainable Procurement Activities
After hosting the EcoProcura 2009 conference in March, the City of Reykjavik became a member of the Procura+ Campaign. The implementation of environmental criteria in procurement practices has had an immense impact on the environmental industry. The uptake of Nordic Swan products used in cleaning services, for example, doubled in 2009 alone.
After revising its GPP code in 2009, Reykjavik developed a checklist for procurers where the environmental impacts of procurement were evaluated with the view of implementing these new rules in 2010. One of these policies will focus on climate and air quality, where the City has committed to reducing greenhouse gases by 35% by 2020 and by 73% by 2050 based on 2007 emission levels. The changeover to alternative vehicle fuel, for instance, will help achieve these targets. GPP will have an important role to play during this transition.
