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Barcelona – a sustainable city consumes green
Barcelona, the capital city of Catalonia, in Spain, employs 12,000 civil servants and owns some 1,000 work centres (administrations, schools, museums, etc.).
Barcelona aspires to be a sustainable city and the City Council develops a comprehensive policy in this view. All stakeholders have to make efforts to achieve sustainability and the municipality as well. Thus Barcelona City Council strives for a sustainable administration, which integrates the principles of sustainability in local government services, which is coherent with Agenda 21, which has reduced environmental impacts, which leads by example, which influences the market, and which optimises its financial resources. The approach to improve municipal environmental practices follows the consumption process: what to buy, how to use the products and what to do with the waste.
5 strategies for environmentalisation
The 1997 environmental audit of Council buildings and Institute of Education was an essential starting point.
 For instance the waste analysis pointed out the importance of paper and cardboard in the internal waste stream: paper is with about 90% the most important component of waste. At the same time, more than 40% of the annual expenses for office equipment are paper and paper products. It also revealed that, even though employees separate their paper waste, they throw away with them 30% of the paper clips purchased by the municipality. Changing employees’ behaviour is thus as important as modifying purchasing practices.
- Information and awareness
 To inform and raise awareness of employees, a green office guide, containing practical tips and guidance, has been published. It was send out to all civil servants . Other selective actions such as duplex copying stickers for copying machines, an information sheet about fair trade coffee, as well as training courses- and continuous actions as the green office webpage are providing updated information to all co-workers and end-users.
The “Green Office Programme” is regulated in a Government measure on the “Environmentalisation of Local Government Services”, which was adopted in 2001 by the City Council. Product related legislation on local level, such as institutional declarations on Fair Trade or the minimisation of chlorinated products, a decree on the use of recycled paper secure the political support for the development of the “Green Office Programme”.
As a consequence of the decree, for example, the consumption of recycled paper increased from less than 10% to over 50%.
- Green purchasing in local government contracting
A basic pillar of the “Green Office Programme” is the inclusion of environmental criteria in tendering specifications. Environmental criteria are set for city cleaning and waste management; approval of computer equipment and consumable goods, approval of reams of paper, approval of office material and cleaning of buildings. Specifications may concern bidder or distributors (technical capacity, certification), products (eco-labels, specific definition, comparison), the overall service (conditions of service, management, characteristics of products or tools used). For instance a criterion concerns the minimisation of waste, packaging and its management.
Tenders are then weighted against these criteria through a matrix and contracts can be awarded depending on these environmental performances.
 Waste avoidance and minimisation, in particular paper waste, plays a significant role in the greening of municipal purchases. Waste minimisation and management by bidders are among the evaluation criteria. Waste prevention is also addressed through the choice of the products purchased and in the employees’ behaviours. In addition to organising the selective collection of waste in local government offices, the use of recycled paper has been increased. Employees are encouraged to use more and more Internet to circulate the information and to avoid unnecessary printing. Purchases also include multipurpose envelops and polypropylene folders to avoid PVC ones.
- Investment in local buildings
Another field of action are the investments in green electricity, substitution of light fittings and installation of water saving devices in local buildings. The monthly publication of basic indicators, such as the electricity production by
solar collectors or CO2-saving, allows making the results visible.
More information:
Kolding, a forerunner in greening public procurements
Kolding, the sixth largest town in Denmark, is a city strongly striving for greening its public purchases. It notably participates in a European project RELIEF and chairs the network BIG-Net, a network of cities working on Green procurement.
A strong national policy for greening public procurements
The Municipality of Kolding benefits from a favourable national context acting as an incentive. Denmark has been pursuing a green public procurement policy within the framework of the “Action Plan for a Sustainable Public Procurement Strategy” since 1994. The preparation of environmental guidelines has been a major activity of the Plan since 1996. In 2000, they cover about 50 different product areas. The environmental guideline for public purchasers on purchasing of desks and tables is available in English on the
Internet.
More: Danish environmental guidelines for public
purchasers http://www.mst.dk/homepage/
Cooperation between national, regional and local governments
The national authorities closely cooperate with the local and regional public authorities in implementing the Action Plan. Their work led to the publication of a general manual for public purchases in 1995. On this basis, the further development of the Danish guidelines is now an on-going process.
1998 was a turning point in the Danish green procurement policy as the cooperation with LRA was formalised through a Green Framework Agreement. By this agreement, LRA commit to take into account environmental and energy aspects when purchasing. A co-ordination group was also set up to promote green public procurements to LRA. The group notably organises information campaigns and training programmes.
Co-operation between municipal departments: the key of Kolding’s success
The municipality of Kolding aims to include environmental considerations in its general procurement contracts. The main difficulties encountered in achieving this objective laid in the reliability of supply and the quality standard of the products. The development of trust between the city and its suppliers was the key for overcoming this barrier.
Another key element is the co-operation within different municipal departments. Indeed, the department responsible for purchases has no clue about environmental impacts of products or clean production issues. The consultation of the department for the environment is therefore crucial.
Public purchase of a large number of green products is certainly strongly influencing the development of markets for these goods. The experience of Kolding testifies that the price difference between traditional and environmental products was 15% while now it is only 5-6% and some green products are even cheaper.
In terms of consumption and environmental impacts, the way those environmentally friendly products are used by the municipal personal is equally important. In Kolding, the efforts towards eco-purchasing goes hand-in-hand with efforts towards eco-behaviours.
Using cleaning agents sparingly
The minimisation of environmental impacts of cleaning agents is of concern for Kolding. Criteria on components are set for purchasing products with a reduced eco-toxicity. In addition, the occupational health service centre has developed a method to minimise the consumption of these products by the central cleaning service unit.
The cleaning agent is mixed with water in the litre measure, according to the dosage instructions. A clean mop is attached to the telescope shaft and the mixed solution is poured onto the mop. After washing, the wet mop is replaced with a dry one that is used to dry the floor and wipe up the dirt. Then the procedure is repeated until the floor is clean. When one of the mops becomes too dirty or wet, it is put in a bag for later washing. An average work day results in 2 kg of dirty mops per cleaning worker. This procedure is very advantageous as it saves cleaning agent and water.
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