European public buyers share good practice on how to Make ICT Fair
A leading group of European public authorities, guided by Electronics Watch and ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability), have piloted socially responsible public procurement of ICT hardware. The group includes Electronics Watch affiliates Barcelona City Council, Municipality of Haarlem, APUC Scotland and Region Stockholm as well as the City of Stavanger. From market dialogue to contract management, the five public buyers took critical steps towards fairer electronics supply chains.
Image: ICLEI European Secretariat
This work took place in the context of the European project ‘Make ICT Fair’. The five case studies detail their approaches, the results of market engagement, which criteria and clauses they used, and key lessons learned.
- Audio-visual equipment by Advanced Procurement for Universities & Colleges (APUC) Scotland
- Computer equipment by the Municipal Institute of Computer Science of Barcelona City Council
- Workspace hardware and mobile devices by the municipality of Haarlem
- Chromebooks by the municipality of Stavanger
- ICT equipment by Region Stockholm
Reflecting on their experience of this pilot project, Carla Canal Rosich of Barcelona City Council advises to “First of all, talk with politicians, legal services and providers. A successful implementation of social criteria depends on support and cooperation with different stakeholders. [...] Cross-country knowledge sharing gives valuable insight into methods, tools and procedures for taking our SRPP work forward.”
According to Kathleen McCaughey of Region Stockholm: “The advantage of having requirements on due diligence, routines and procedures is that if they are well implemented, it will have an impact on the supplier’s entire business.”