Communicate your ambition

Raise awareness of your city’s circular public procurement ambitions

Clearly communicating your city's circular public procurement ambition and how it supports broader social, environmental, and economic targets, will ensure it is set as a priority. It will build a common understanding of the concept of circular economy across your city, provide support to the city officials who will be responsible for implementation across all stages of the procurement process, and help to streamline the approach across departments.

Communicating the circular procurement strategy upfront, setting the expectations for tenders, and making businesses and small and medium-size enterprises (SME) aware of upcoming opportunities will encourage potential suppliers to participate in the process. Providing industry with clarity on how criteria and intended outcomes will evolve over time can encourage potential suppliers to develop and invest in more circular solutions and become more ambitious. As your city government starts to procure more circular goods and services, it can adjust its procedures and solicitation documents and communicate these changes to suppliers. Raising awareness of your city’s circular public procurement ambitions through on-going training, communication campaigns, dedicated web pages, stakeholder dialogue, and engagement events can have a significant impact on the success of prospective projects.

Questions to consider:

• Who needs to be aware of your city’s circular public procurement ambitions?

• How does your city’s circular procurement ambition support the broader city-wide strategy for circularity (if applicable)?

• How can you best communicate the aims of the city’s circular public procurement strategy to the relevant internal and external stakeholders and departments?

• Are the following stakeholders aware of the city’s circular public procurement ambitions and intended social, environmental, health, or economic outcomes? + Other city departments? + Businesses on your supplier database? Businesses operating in your city? + Other stakeholders such as municipal agencies, civil society, business associations, etc.?

Examples

1) In 2010, Portugal set up a communication campaign to increase stakeholders’ awareness of its National Strategy on Green Public Procurement. Several events and a road show in seven different cities were organised to enhance understanding of the national green public procurement strategy and objectives.

2) To build knowledge and foster collaboration for the implementation of circular economy related projects, the municipality of Umeå organises awareness-raising campaigns and training activities for municipal employees and students. For example, the Umeå branch of the NGO Cradlenet Norr organises bi-monthly meetings to raise awareness of circular economy issues, organises specialised field visits and participates in international events and platforms on the circular economy.

3) Circular Weekends in Valladolid aim to promote a circular economy culture and raise awareness of circular economy opportunities in the city.

Resource

The “awareness raising” section of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Urban Policy Levers paper, provides an overview of how city governments can increase awareness of circular economy best practices, initiatives, and market opportunities.