“Europe is growing as an innovative social and diverse community and public procurement can steer into a more sustainable, inclusive and beautiful future! I believe the challenge is to assure equality, transparency and access as well as creativity and flexibility.” These words by Rita Campos, Municipality of Horta (Portugal) embodied the collaborative spirit of the second Big Buyers Working Together annual event, taking place in Helsinki on 24 and 25 March.

Campos represented the Community of Practice on New European Bauhaus in a panel discussion on how public buyers can drive a more sustainable, social and innovative Europe. She was joined on stage by Valentina Schippers-Opejko (City of Haarlem, CoP on Circular Construction), Ioanna Palaiopanou (Athens University of Economic and Business, CoP on Sustainability in ICT); Sophie Carlier (UniHA, CoP on Healthcare Efficiency) and Sami Aherva (City of Helsinki, CoP on Heavy-Duty Electric Vehicles).

The geographical and topical diversity of the panel highlighted the growing understanding across Europe that public procurement is a strategic tool that can have an impact on a wide variety of policy areas. The Big Buyers Working Together project aims to leverage this potential by bringing public buyers from across Europe together to join forces and use their combined purchasing power to influence social, sustainable, circular and innovative policy objectives.

Implementing these ambitious goals may require public procurers to change their ways. As Sami Aherva notes: “Our CoP doesn’t just focus on buying more sustainable vehicles and how to use them. It’s about the challenges of purchasing new technologies, learning new techniques and applying them in practice. Public procurement of innovation is not just about buying something new, but it is a learning journey that forces organisations to adapt their strategies and make sure they are functional.”

Innovation can be a costly business, which is another rationale for projects such as BBWT. By combining their resources, public buyers have more opportunities to challenge the market to go in a direction that directly benefits citizens and societies. On their own, public procurers face much more challenges as noted by Ioanna Palaiopanou: “In Greece public buyers who try to align procurement policies with climate objectives face budget issues. They have to choose very carefully what to include in tenders. Sometimes they don’t use specific technical requirements, but include general requirements to stimulate innovation and more suppliers to apply.”

Costs are however not the only challenge for public buyers. Capacity building is crucial, for both contractors and suppliers.That also requires knowledge of the market, emphasises Valentina Schippers-Opejko: “In the Circular Construction CoP, we are doing market availability research on circular construction materials. It’s important to have an overview of what has been previously applied, what is currently available, and what is in development.” Sophie Carlier echoes these words: “We need to deal with technology before technology starts dealing with us, and to know what the best value for money is in your sector. In healthcare that is the best ratio between benefits and costs, but is also defined by clinical outcomes. Public procurers need to think about that.”