Editor’s choice
Editor’s choice
As the European Green Capital 2023, the City of Tallinn has made Green Governance a top priority. The conference “Driving change: empowering sustainability through green governance” united cities from the Baltic Sea Region and beyond, fostering the exchange of best practices and discussions on the challenges of transitioning to green governance.
The green governance conference was held on 16 November 2023.
With Green Public Procurement as a central theme, the conference recognizes its vital role in implementing green governance and promoting sustainable consumption and production. Local governments possess significant potential to achieve sustainability goals through their procurement processes, particularly by ensuring they are not just climate-neutral but also circular and free from harmful toxins. During the event, the first-ever NonHazCity Award for tox-free, circular and climate-neutral buildings and building processes at municipalities was launched.
The event brought together local authorities, business actors and all the other individuals who are interested in green governance topics. It will provide a valuable networking opportunity for Green Cities, facilitating collaboration and mutual learning.
This event was organised by the City of Tallinn, Stockholm Environment Institute Tallinn Centre and Baltic Environmental Forum Estonia and was part of the Tallinn Greentech Week programme.
Moderator of the event: Heidrun Fammler, Baltic Environmental Forum
9.00 Opening of the event by Mayor of Tallinn, Mihhail Kõlvart
9.10 Keynote: Green Public Procurement – a great policy instrument for achieving Green Governance. How “green” can procurement be? What are the key barriers and biggest potentials? Evelin Piirsalu, Stockholm Environment Institute Tallinn Centre
9.30-13.00 Presentations by representatives of municipalities from the Baltic Sea region
Best practice examples and ambitions for greening procurement as an effective instrument of Green Governance:
Stockholm: The ChemClimCircle approach for an integrated procurement – more than CO2 emission reduction. Åsa Lindhagen, Vice Mayor for Environment and Climate (video speech) and Arne Jamtrot, Head of the Chemicals Centre
Helsinki: An ambitious lighthouse project: procuring (and building) a Nordic-Swan-labelled kindergarten from A to Z. Katri Kuusinen, Head of Unit, Urban Environment
Lithuania: Making Green Public Procurement mandatory all over Lithuania – an ambitious governance goal and first experiences from implementation. Kęstutis Kazulis, Public Procurement Office
Smiltene: The Green Public Procurement vision and first experiences from its implementation. Mārtiņš Ulāns, Deputy Executive Director of Smiltene Municipality, Latvia
Panel discussion among the speakers: How can GPP become a routine, not only a best practice example – how to make it a new norm?
11:10–11:30 Coffee break
Tallinn: Experiences from greening the public events – have the ambitions of procuring single-use plastic-free events come true? Joosep Vimm, Deputy Mayor
Hamburg: The “early bird” – comprehensive guidelines on environmental criteria for procurers since 2016: a long way to go until sustainability criteria. Jens Kerstan, Senator for the Environment, Climate, Energy and Agro-Economy
Västerås: The Plastic Reduction Action Plan: high-level political commitment for soft measures to reduce single-use plastic and plastic packaging in the municipality. Vicky Skure Eriksson, Deputy Mayor
Riga: The Chemicals Action Plan as high-level commitment – first experiences with raising awareness of Riga City Council on hazardous substances in urban daily life. Viesturs Zeps, Chairman of the Housing and Environment Committee, Riga City Council
Panel discussion among the speakers: How to make “voluntary” Green Governance instruments mandatory in a city?
13.00–13.15 Launch of the NonHazCity Award for tox-free, circular and climate-neutral buildings and building processes at municipalities. Joosep Vimm, Deputy Mayor of Tallinn and Alexandra Wandel, Chair of World Future Council
13.15–14.15 Lunch
14.15–17.30 The NonHazCity & ChemClimCircle projects’ public seminar on specific aspects of Green Public Procurement (GPP)
Session 1: Evaluation of GPP implementation impacts
16.00–16.20 Coffee break
Session 2: Certification and labelling as instruments for procurement decisions
Summary and conclusions
17.30 Social networking
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