home
about IGPN -->
> News
News
November 25, 2022
The Project Feeding Urbanization aims at identifying the key urban food systems challenges in selected small and intermediary cities. This video shows a great introduction, and collaborators went even deeper with a podcast interview with the project coordinator, which you can listen to below.
Check out the podcast at One Planet Network News.
...continue to read
category : Topics
November 10, 2022
This publication aims to contribute to the improved understanding, dissemination, and use of public food procurement as a development tool, particularly the case of school meals programmes. It also provides case studies with local, regional, and national experiences from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America.
More in details at the website of One Planet Network.
...continue to read
category : Topics
November 1, 2022
The Inclusive Public Procurement Playbook was launched at UNDP Business Call to Action’s (BCtA) 12th Annual Forum as a guide to seven strategies that can promote supplier diversity while guaranteeing important public procurement principles.
September 21st, 2022, Istanbul – In the context of the current interlocked crises, the BCtA 12th Annual Forum convened partners on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly on ‘The Power of Collaboration’ to present an integrated solution that effectively engages governments and businesses for systemic change.
Partners agreed that public procurement is an essential component of democratic governance, poverty reduction and sustainable development, which can be used to propel changes in public service delivery, create fiscal space and jobs, and stimulate private sector growth. “Through sustainable public procurement (SPP) principles and practices, the annual multi-trillion-dollar public procurement budgets can be leveraged to support sustainable development”, said Moderator Carsten Hansen, Chief of Procurement Services Unit at UNDP. A well-performing public procurement system increases citizens’ confidence in government and private sector competitiveness, especially by levelling the playing field for small- and medium-sized businesses.
Inclusive Public Procurement (IPP) is a new way of looking at public procurement under which the government meets its needs for goods and services through the private sector by engaging Small Medium Enterprises (SME) and Inclusive Businesses (IBs) in the public procurement process. As an approach to Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP), IPP is designed to maximize equitable economic, social, and environmental benefits with the primary aim of promoting supplier diversity through economic inclusion in the supply chain of SMEs, IBs and other socially disadvantaged groups. Understanding the important role that Inclusive Businesses play in supporting governments to better reach underserved populations with essential services and goods, this discussion will focus on the uptake of SMEs operating inclusive business models in public procurement processes.
During the session Inclusive Public Procurement: Enhancing SME-based innovation uptake in public procurement processes, Luciana Aguiar, Programme Manager at UNDP Business Call to Action, presented the Inclusive Public Procurement Playbook as a guide to seven strategies that can promote supplier diversity while guaranteeing important public procurement principles. “The Inclusive Public Procurement Playbook seeks to define the standards, procedures, strategies, and best practices for both private and public sector actors. For the public sector, the playbook guides public procurement actors on enhancing SME-based inclusive business solutions. For the private sector, the Playbook guides SMEs, social enterprises, and inclusive businesses on how to successfully navigate public procurement processes”, said Luciana Aguiar.
At a glance, this Playbook presents the case for change towards inclusive public procurement and defines the standards, procedures, strategies and best practices for public procurement stakeholders to enhance supplier diversity while guaranteeing important public procurement principles. Moreover, the Playbook aims to guide SMEs, social enterprises and inclusive businesses on how to navigate public procurement processes; as well as to support public procurement stakeholders on how to enhance SME-based inclusive business solutions to serve vulnerable communities.
More in details at UNDP businesscalltoaction website.
...continue to read
category : Topics
October 27, 2022
Do you need help getting started with your sustainable procurement strategy? Join this webinar to learn more about the IT sustainability challenges and the corresponding solutions throughout the life cycle of IT products, and how you can drive positive changes through strategic and sustainable procurement.
This webinar is a cooperation between TCO Development and Sustainable Electronics Recycling International (SERI), with huge support from sustainable and circular IT expert Michael Buchanan from Australia.
On the agenda:
-Introduction of the existing sustainability risks and solutions connected to IT products within their life cycle.
-Why design and manufacturing phases are critically important to make IT products more sustainable.
-Why managing your used IT products responsibly is extremely crucial for IT sustainability and slowing down the growth of e-waste.
-How procurement practice can help your organization reduce risk in IT procurement till the end of life.
Date: November 17.
Time: 09.30-10.30 Bangkok, 10.30-11.30 Singapore, 11.30-12.30 Tokyo, 13.30-14.30 Sydney
Sigh up at here.
More information on the TCO website.
...continue to read
category : Topics
October 21, 2022
Tokyo has some seriously ambitious extension plans.
Japan’s capital is set to become bigger, better and incorporate a mini city, the Tokyo Metropolitan government (TMG) says in a new report.
Tokyo eSG, as its name suggests, will be built around the principles of environmental and social governance and incorporate the latest green technologies.
“The world’s first ESG city” is due for completion by 2050 and billed to become a municipal model for the global community.
Back to the future
Today’s urban planners need to adopt a forward-thinking approach in the face of urgent global challenges such as climate change and the threat of future pandemics, the project report says.
But the TMG’s vision of creating a sustainable and future-proof city that leads by example is nothing new in Tokyo’s history, it adds.
In the 18th century, Japan’s capital, then known as “Edo”, was the world’s biggest city, with a thriving circular economy. And in 1923 it had to be completely rebuilt after being devastated by the Great Kanto earthquake.
“Tokyo expanded through creating reclaimed land into the sea and that is a strong advantage for us… No one lives on the land we plan to use, so we can start from zero,” the city’s deputy governor Manabu Misaka told Bloomberg.
The Tokyo eSG project will see an unused stretch of land in Tokyo Bay extended to around 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres).
This unpopulated area was used during the 2020 Olympics to host canoeing and rowing events and, recently, for waste disposal.
A sustainable vision
Cities currently support half the world’s population and they account for more than 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the UN.
So, what’s being done to make Tokyo a clean and sustainable city of the future?
To establish what it calls a “sharing economy”, the TMG says it is rethinking ideas around ownership and consumption, as well the use of materials and waste-management.
It is hoped the project will attract ESG-focused venture capital and start-ups from around the world looking to test new technologies that can help build a circular economy. To this end, the TMG has set up a green finance scheme that provides subsidies to foreign asset managers and fintech companies with a sustainability focus.
All of the city’s energy needs will eventually be met by renewable energy, including hydrogen, wind power and floating solar farms, managed by smart grids, according to the report.
The Tokyo eSG plans also envisage zero-emission buildings and public transport systems.
“The challenge is to build a city that will be strong against the crises we face, whether it’s infectious diseases, climate change or energy supply,” Miyasaka told Bloomberg.
Providing an economic boost
While the project aims to tackle the most pressing challenges facing the world’s major cities, it is also about increasing the country’s global competitiveness.
Japan ranked 28th among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries for digital competitiveness in the 2021 IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking.
The report acknowledges that the country has much work to do: “Japan lags far behind in the digital shift occurring in the rest of the world. It has also fallen behind in the area of economic growth. Based on these circumstances, there is a pressing need to fundamentally reform existing systems and approaches”, it says.
The TMG is focusing on building up its 5G network in the city, in line with government plans to triple coverage across the country in the next two years. This will be essential to the swift development of a future-proof municipal infrastructure, as well as garner the interest of businesses and talent.
Building the cities of tomorrow
As well as “creating ripple effects throughout Japan”, the city’s governor believes Tokyo eSG could achieve significant international impact: “Technology is moving away from being used in the purely digital world, to physical spaces. Cities will battle to become places to develop such new technologies, and the project could become a template for other urban centres,” he told Bloomberg.
The future of cities is a major focus of the World Economic Forum’s network of Global Future Councils. The 1,000-strong membership of thought leaders - from academia, government, international organizations, business and civil society - seeks to identify how urban areas can be re-designed to work better for residents and the planet.
WEForum, 21 September 2022,By: Stefan Ellerbeck.
...continue to read
category : Topics
October 14, 2022
Everywhere we look, we see companies making commitments to climate and sustainability goals. But while the bold net-zero pledges that CEOs, investors, and boards are making have received a positive response, it’s clear that companies still have a long way to go to inspire the consumer action needed to help reach our global climate ambitions.
What will it take to make consumers choose environmental sustainability, whether through their behaviors or their purchases? What are C-suite executives (CXOs) missing?
We believe the answers lie with consumers themselves. Our research has confirmed that consumers do care about climate and sustainability and want to do their part. (See the sidebar “About Our Research.”)
But some consumers are confused about what they, as individuals, can do to make a difference; only 20% think that they can personally have an impact. More significantly, approximately 70% are disillusioned—wary of corporate claims about progress toward sustainability and suspicious that those corporate commitments are a ruse masking the true intent: merely to burnish reputations and attract customers. High-profile allegations of corporate greenwashing only bolster the disillusionment.
While up to 80% of consumers say they think about sustainability in their day-to-day purchases, only 1% to 7% report that they are paying a premium for sustainable products and services. Leaders often interpret this extremely broad “say-do” gap as a signal that consumers are not yet ready to follow through on their own convictions about sustainability. We believe, however, that measuring only those two extremes conveys an incomplete picture of the true range of actual consumer behaviors.
We examined every stage of consumer behavior in our research and identified two other important groups of consumers who are on the threshold of embracing sustainable products and services. The key question for CXOs is, How do we encourage more of those consumers to cross that threshold and make sustainable choices?
Breaking Down the “Say-Do” Gap
Between the consumers who are paying a premium for sustainable products and services and those who merely express concern about sustainability there are many other consumers: those who are taking action by buying sustainable products and services (albeit not at a premium) and those who are adopting sustainable behaviors (such as minimizing their water and electricity use, washing their clothes in cold water, restricting solo travel in automobiles, or using refillable packaging).
More good news: there are ways to reach and motivate these “in between” consumers by aligning sustainable offerings with their core needs. CEOs, chief marketing officers, and chief sustainability officers also need to understand the factors that currently deter consumers from more fully embracing sustainable choices and the factors that will motivate them toward sustainability. Then, CXOs need to learn to speak the language that will best resonate with consumers.
There’s marked variation across the product and service categories we examined. Some categories are more advanced on the consumer maturity curve, offering significant opportunity for companies to step up.
For instance, in home care products, nearly 60% of consumers say they are already following sustainable behaviors such as recycling products, bottles, and packaging (36%); using reusable cloths for cleaning (35%); and buying refillable cleaning and home care products (29%).
In the cars category, 39% of consumers report they are adopting sustainable behaviors such as avoiding driving or driving only when necessary (38%) or carpooling with others (14%).
The imperatives differ across categories, so the agendas for reaching consumers will differ as well.
Our survey also revealed trends by country, with some surprises. We’ve seen that the greatest concern about sustainability comes from consumers in China (92%) for categories such as home care, cars, grocery retail, apparel, and skin care products and those in Brazil (89%) for select categories including home care, cars, and PCs and tablets. Concern is relatively high among consumers in India (84%) for cars. Among higher-income markets, Italy shows the highest level of concern (87%), particularly in electricity providers, home care, luxury, and PCs and tablets.
Possibly, the trends in emerging markets reflect localized and firsthand exposure to the harmful effects of nonsustainable behaviors. In certain markets, consumers may feel these effects more acutely, resulting in a heightened awareness of the need to act. In China, for instance, consumers witness firsthand the smog and pollution that result from nonsustainable practices. (Another possible reason for China’s progress on this front: government leaders may be emphasizing sustainable development.) Consumers in Brazil may have a greater understanding of and commitment to sustainability because they have a front-row seat to the unfortunate destruction of the rainforests. In some other nations, the true impact on environmental degradation may simply not be so obvious. Yet.
And the heightened concern doesn’t translate into action across markets. Consumers in China and Italy are generally embracing sustainability. But while consumers in Brazil and India are concerned, they tend to fall behind on adopting sustainable behaviors or buying sustainable products and services across most categories.
Driving Green into the Mainstream
Companies and CXOs will not fully maximize the potential of sustainable products and services if they focus only on increasing the percentage of consumers who are willing to pay more for sustainability—a segment that currently comprises just 1% to 7% of consumers. That segment is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Companies can move more consumers toward sustainable products and services by thinking about the different imperatives of the other three consumer segments. Those consumers—the ones who are concerned about sustainability, adopting sustainable behaviors, and acting by purchasing sustainable products and services—are high-potential silent stakeholders in sustainability. For example, we see that sustainable products and services have higher net promoter scores (NPS) relative to nonsustainable alternatives. Having the right value proposition can not only encourage people to act and buy sustainably but also develop strong relationships and loyalty between consumers and brands.
By understanding the core needs of consumers, companies can significantly increase sustainable outcomes. Sometimes this will mean innovating to remove real barriers, and sometimes it will mean using communication to address perceived barriers.
The three imperatives for expanding the uptake of sustainable lifestyles are:
-Make claims locally relevant.
-Broaden the dialogue.
-Break the tradeoffs.
Make claims locally relevant. Among consumers who are paying more for sustainability or acting by making sustainable purchases, participation can be expanded if companies emphasize the legitimate, fact-based sustainability claims that resonate best given consumer perceptions—and thus spur consumers to greater action. (Remember, consumers are wary of claims that might be perceived as greenwashing.) CXOs need to speak the language of consumers rather than the language of their internal business team, regulators, or investors.
This language can differ in each country, so CXOs should use nuanced claims and language across markets. For instance, product claims that relate to protecting forests and biodiversity will resonate greatly for consumers in Brazil. Packaging is an issue of particular concern to Japanese consumers; they are likely to favor products that are recyclable, reusable, and made of compostable packaging or packaging that is free of plastics.
Broaden the dialogue. We found that, at most, 16% of consumers value sustainability for its own sake as a top driver of choice; this relatively small share of consumers said that sustainability was one of the top-three needs in their last purchase.
However, a significantly larger share of consumers (20% to 43% in the categories we tested) could be persuaded to make sustainable choices if the products or services also deliver other related and highly relevant needs.
In the beverages category, for instance, only 7% of consumers cite sustainability as one of the top three attributes they consider when making a purchase. But a larger share of consumers—as much as 43%—have top-three needs that don’t include sustainability specifically but are related to sustainability. These consumers seek beverages that are healthy, high quality, guilt free, and socially responsible—and all these associations are positively correlated with sustainable products. By broadening the dialogue to emphasize these related attributes in product design and marketing initiatives, companies can attract consumers to sustainable products even when consumers are not deliberately seeking them.
Break the tradeoffs. Consumers who express concern about climate and sustainability and those who are adopting sustainable behaviors can be reached through strategies designed to break the tradeoffs—the reasons why consumers hesitate to more fully embrace sustainability.
Sometimes these tradeoffs reflect real shortcomings. Companies’ sustainable offerings might not include appealing or acceptable products and services. Companies may offer less variety in the category of sustainable snacks, for instance, or a paper straw may be of poor quality relative to a plastic straw and therefore less convenient to use.
Alternatively, the tradeoffs may be misperceptions on the part of consumers. Many consumers think sustainable alternatives to products and services simply don’t exist, even when they are plentiful on the market. And consumers who are aware that sustainable products and services exist may assume that they are a lot more expensive than they actually are.
These may not be the only misperceptions posing barriers. Consumers may not understand the various ways to be sustainable—they might not know, for instance, that washing dishes by hand uses more water than a dishwasher.
Revisiting our example of beverages, we see that consumers believe sustainable beverages aren’t appropriate for celebrations, aren’t extraordinary, and aren’t a good value for the money. Companies will need to first understand the specific tradeoff that consumers are making and then plan solutions accordingly. For instance, advertising sustainable beverages as “fun” and “extraordinary” could enhance the image of the products as appropriate for celebrations. However, improving the actual innovation pipeline may be what it takes to make “good value” sustainable-beverage options available to consumers.
For many consumers who are concerned about climate and sustainability but are reluctant to act, cost is a primary issue. In fact, this is a key tradeoff. It’s also a great example of a negative perception that may not be justified. Our research proves that consumers who do not actually buy sustainable products tend to perceive a much higher “green premium” than the actual premium paid by consumers who do buy green products.
Therefore, consumers who are on the fence about making sustainable purchases for reasons of price need to see clearer price communication.
BCG, 13 September 2022, By: Kanika Sanghi, Aparna Bharadwaj, Lauren Taylor, Léa Turquier, and Indira Zaveri.
...continue to read
category : Topics
September 30, 2022
The finalists for the 2022 Procura+ Awards have been unveiled. The Awards, supported by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, reward successful, sustainable, circular and innovative public procurement projects. These year awards will be given out in four categories: Circular Procurement of the Year, Innovation Procurement of the Year, Procurement initative of the Year, and Sustainable Procurement of the Year.
Two nordic cities are finalists in the Circular Procurement category. Malmö (Sweden) has replicated its approach from the Circular PP project, aimed at non-furniture for its city hall, for the procurement of road and navigation signs. The municipality aims to reuse the signs as much as possible with recycling being the last resort option. Tampere (Finland) is renovating one of its main streets using new public circular economy criteria it developed as part of a multidisciplinary cooperation with stakeholders from different sectors. Tampere and Malmö are joined by Quimper (France) which aimed to reuse on-site as materials as possible during the renovation of its railway station.
Lisbon (Portugal) is a finalist in the category Innovation Procurement of the Year, for its development of a Procurement Planning Platform. The Platform will serve as the backbone for a strategic sourcing approach aimed at sustainability and innovation. Lisbon is competing here with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy. Its IWR2021 project applied an innovative approach to the procurement of ICT hardware, set a new standard in the field, and challenged the market to become more sustainable.
Ghent (Belgium) and Copenhagen (Denmark) are recognised in the category Procurement Initiative of the Year. The Belgian city, together with the Flemish Energy Company (VEB), set up a virtual power purchase agreement (PPA) for the delivery of locally produced solar power. The PPA protects the city against volatility in electricity prizes. The Danish capital, aiming to become the first carbon-neutral capital by 2022, implements criteria in all its civil works tenders to promote fossil- and emission-free non-road mobile machinery.
Utrecht (The Netherlands) applied far-reaching social and sustainable criteria in its food procurement to ensure sustainable, circular, high quality food products for its citizens, reduce packaging and residual flows, and minimise food waste. For this, it was chosen as a finalist in the Sustainable Procurement of the Year category. It is joined here by the Irish Prison Service, which conducted a tender for the removal and recycling or repurposing of discarded mattresses across all 12 of its prisons. The tender requirements also included that the contractor should employ former offenders.
The winners will be announced at 12 October during a live awards ceremony at the Procura+ Seminar in Brussels (Belgium). The jury selecting the winners and finalists consists of
-Erika Bozzay, Senior Policy Adviser at the Infrastructure and Public Procurement Division, OECD
-Katharina Knapton-Vierlich, Head of Unit, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission
-Mark Hidson, Global Director ICLEI's Sustainable Procurement Centre
-Sarah O'Carroll, Cities Lead, Institutions, Governments & Cities, Ellen MacArthur Foundation
More information on the finalists and their work can be found on the Procura+ website.
...continue to read
category : Topics
September 21, 2022
The 193-member body called upon States, international organizations, business enterprises and other relevant stakeholders to adopt policies, enhance international cooperation, strengthen capacity-building and continue to share good practices in order to scale up efforts to ensure a clean, healthy and sustainable environment for all.
More in details at here.
...continue to read
category : Topics
September 16, 2022
This survey has been developed as part of the project Cities and Regions for a Blue Economy of the OECD Water Governance Programme within the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE). The project advocates for a localised approach to the blue economy in which local and national governments and stakeholders share the task of implementing a Resilient, Inclusive, Sustainable and Circular (RISC-proof) blue economy, through good governance at the right scale. It involves both coastal and inland cities and regions in which a significant share of economic activity depends on oceans, seas, deltas, rivers and lakes.
Learn more at here.
...continue to read
category : Topics
