The City of Gothenburg is Sweden’s second largest municipality. The region aims to be a forerunner in environmental and urban development and uses public procurement as a tool for driving positive change. CSR specialist Johan Davidsson has some top tips for success.
“We include sustainability requirements in our contracts because we know that we can make a difference. The City of Gothenburg is a large and important customer to many of our suppliers, so the criteria we set are important to them. We have strong ambitions within the sustainability field and together with our suppliers, we can make positive change happen”, says Johan Davidsson.
The City of Gothenburg procures products and services to a value of two billion Euros each year. Around 70 people work in the purchasing and procurement department.
Davidsson adds: “We have a good level of expertise and relatively extensive resources to work with sustainable procurement. We set own criteria when we need to, but it is often more efficient to use criteria that are already familiar to the suppliers. To achieve this, we make use of criteria in certifications, re-use contracts we’ve written earlier or learn from other public authorities and use materials from The National Agency for Public Procurement.”