The City of Aalborg participated in the annual meeting on green procurement arranged by POGI (Partnership of Green Procurement) and Forum for Sustainable Procurement (the Danish national effort in green procurement).

There were around 180 participants, including the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs Rasmus Jarlov, who emphasized the importance of green procurement.

Dansk Erhverv (the Danish Chamber of Commerce) gave a presentation about public partnerships, there was a panel debate about private and public cooperation in green transition. A number of good examples were raised on how to improve cooperation, such as “do not complain when a public sector has done an innovative tender”, or on how municipalities can make better use of innovation procurement models which allow greater flexibility around procurement rules and laws, and would be ideal for trialing and testing circular economy on a larger scale.

Attendees also had the opportunity to hear a presentation by Sara Øllgaard, an expert in public private cooperation. Her message was to be a like a ‘gardener’, meaning take care of your relationships and help them grow, and don’t be afraid to be a ‘jester’ – meaning feel free to ask ‘stupid’ questions! Only by doing this will it be possible to move outside of our comfort zones, and develop new knowledge and concepts.

Networking was part of the meeting and there were a number of opportunities to promote the Circular PP project and the topics being addressed in the project. We had an early marked engagement by talking to a company that is making furniture for playground, and we shared experiences with other Danish experts in sustainable and circular procurement.

For more information on the event visit: https://ansvarligeindkob.dk/aktiviteter/aarskonference/