Green Responsive Innovate Procurement (GRIP)

“Green Responsible Innovative Procurement” (GRIP) is a multi-city project that focuses on supporting European cities in using procurement as a strategic climate action tool.  It also seeks to deepen political commitment across cities in the EU Cities Mission network to use procurement to advance climate action across Europe.

Experience shows that cities that set climate requirements or use environmental performance as award criteria can influence markets and accelerate the transition towards greener businesses. Using procurement in this way is an efficient way for cities to show climate leadership, and an effective climate action tool.

Our belief is that by pooling our resources and scaling up the use of green procurement in cities large and small across Europe, the pressure on the market to transition towards greener technology will increase. This will help incentivize investments in more climate friendly solutions of the goods and services that cities rely on. Over the longer term, this should also contribute to more accessible and affordable technology.

In short: we believe that leveraging procurement- a mainstream process for any city- as a climate action tool can lead to outsized results.

Through capacity development, documenting and sharing lessons learned, conducting state-of-the-art research, exchanging experiences, and developing and testing methods among cities GRIP will

• support the cities of Aachen and Kosice in developing their own pilots on sustainable procurement
• develop a tested and peer reviewed “toolkit” for cities wanting to use green procurement. The toolkit will provide adaptable and accessible approaches and tools for cities regardless of size, capacity and resource challenges etc, and can be used well beyond the timeline of the project.
• engage additional Mission Cities to commit to using green procurement as a climate action tool to reach their own climate targets, and to collectively support a greener marketplace within the EU, through signing a declaration on sustainable procurement

The experience of the City of Oslo shows that introducing strict requirements on, for example, zero-emission transport is feasible, cost-effective, and can lead to significant emissions reductions. In Oslo, such requirements have contributed to better air quality, reduced noise pollution, and a reduction of traffic, while sending a clear signal to the market that the city wants zero-emission vehicles, making it safer for businesses to invest.  It’s a win-win- approach for all!

The GRIP project consists of the cities of Oslo (Norway), Aachen (Germany) and Kosice (Slovakia), along with project partners SINTEF and CIKE.

GRIP seeks to engage cities across the EU Cities Mission to commit to action or leadership. You will be encouraged to sign the GRIP declaration, invited to webinars, have a chance to comment on draft versions of the toolkit, and benefit from any engagements the project team undertakes at the Mission Level. Contact: sofi.halling@kli.oslo.kommune.no if you are interested .