Identify opportunities for pilots

Identifying opportunities for pilots within current procurement activities

By considering how circular economy thinking can be embedded throughout the use-cycle of products, services, and materials that your city is currently procuring, you can discover new opportunities. When a contract comes to an end, you have an opportunity to rethink your city’s needs and explore how the new contract can incorporate a circular dimension. There may also be opportunities to better utilise existing assets in line with circular economy principles, as an alternative to procurement of new assets.

Questions to consider:

• Can you identify low-risk but high impact spend categories for pilots?

• Which contracts are currently up for renewal? Can the new contracts incorporate a circular dimension?

• Can you use public-private partnerships to run pilots?

• How will you measure and communicate the outcomes of the pilots?

Example

With 26,000 employees, the City of Malmö requires a large amount of office furniture. As part of the EU-funded Circular PP project, Malmö decided to pilot a procurement approach that would increase the reuse of furniture in 2018. This pilot aimed to utilise furniture that was already available in the City of Malmö with the help of inventories of existing furniture in stores, offices, or on its internal second hand market.

Resources

• As part of the Circular PP project, the cities of Aalborg, Malmö, Smiltene, and Pļaviņas piloted innovative new approaches to buying circular goods and services between 2017 and 2020.

• The Circle City Scan Tool enables local governments to discover and prioritise circular opportunities for their city, based on available data, material flow analysis, and relevant examples.