COPENHAGEN

OVERVIEW

SPP IN COPENHAGEN

Copenhagen is the capital and most populated city of Denmark, with a population of almost 2 million people in the wider metropolitan region. Copenhagen’s total procurement volume is €1.5bn per year. With this buying power Copenhagen has a large influence on the supply of goods and services within the Danish market.


SPP HIGHLIGHTS

    **Winner, together with the City of Odense, of the Procura+ Awards for Sustainable Procurement of the Year 2021**

    • Target set to become carbon neutral by 2025
    • By the end of 2015, 59% of the city car fleet was electric
    • 90% of public sector meals (offices, schools, kindergartens) are organic. With the new Food Strategy from 2019 there is a target of reducing the city’s CO2 emission with 25% pr inhabitant by 2025.

    569k

    Population

    40k

    Employees

    2015

    Date joined

    CONTACT

    Ida Meulengracht Ginsborg

    Senior Environmental Advisor

     

    WEBSITE

     

    More information? Email procurement@iclei.org  

    IN ACTION

    SPP POLICY AND STRATEGY

    Copenhagen has several different city plans regarding a green and sustainable transition and a procurement strategy supports the goals in the city plans. The Procurement Policy 2019-2022 states that Copenhagen has an ambition to lower the CO2 emission through SPP. Specifically through stricter requirements to ‘green’ transportation of goods and services, promoting purchasing of eco-labeled products and services, focusing on refurbished and circular products and use TCO-tools in tenders. In 2020 the Sustainable Procurement Team published the first annual report on the city’s progress in relation to SSP.


    SPP TARGETS

    • Become first carbon neutral capital city by 2025.

    SUPPLIER ENGAGEMENT

    Supplier engagement is key for setting ambitious and realistic requirements in tenders in the city of Copenhagen. For the City of Copenhagen market dialogue is a crucial practice in tenders where environmental and climate requirements are relevant. The market dialogue ensures that the city as a procurer is aware what the market is capable of, where there are obstacles and opportunities. In the end this will be reflected in the requirements in the tender. One example of this is the political decision of stricter requirements to green vehicles in the city. After a number of extended market dialogues with the market in different areas of work, e.g. window polishers and electricians it was clear that each tender had to set different requirements. In both tenders there was a staircase model for introducing green vehicles however, they differed. For window polishers it started with 20% green vehicles in the first year of the contract and then exceeded to 80% the fourth and last year of the contract. For electricians the requirements to green vehicles started at 50% and exceeded to 90 % during the contract period.     


    ENCOURAGING SMEs

    The City of Copenhagen believes that it is important to further the potential of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) to bid at public tenders and thus promote innovation through PPI (Public Procurement of Innovation). Enhancing the ability of SMEs to compete for business opportunities in the public sector, whilst meeting sustainable indicators, will help ensure that green growth continues to emerge in the market place.


    REGIONAL NETWORKING

    Copenhagen is a member of the Danish Partnership for Green Public Procurement which connects municipalities seeking to protect the environment by additional joint measures in the area of procurement. Obligations include following jointly specified procurement objectives; having a procurement policy in which environmental concerns play a significant part; and publishing the procurement policy on the respective authority's website. The Partnership strives to renew previous objectives and to formulate new objectives each year – objectives with a positive effect on global and local environment.