Oslo, Aachen, and Košice's Enabling City Transformation Activity: GRIP (Green Responsible Innovative Procurement)

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Oslo, Aachen, Košice

Norwegian, German, Slovakian

Context and Challenges

Cities across Europe are eager to use procurement as a strategic climate tool, but face barriers including legal complexity, limited resources, and low institutional capacity—especially in smaller cities. Although green procurement has proven climate benefits, it remains underused due to overly technically complex and lengthy tools and insufficient political prioritization. GRIP responds by uniting Oslo, Aachen, and Košice to co-develop a practical, accessible toolkit and build cross-sector capacity. It also seeks to scale political commitment across the EU Cities Mission and Mission Platform (NetZeroCities) network, positioning procurement not just as an administrative task, but as a high-impact lever for accelerating climate neutrality.

Objectives

  • Build capacity for cities to embed green procurement into climate strategies
  • Develop an adaptable, peer-reviewed NetZeroCities toolkit for all city types
  • Pilot green procurement models in Košice and Aachen
  • Promote a shared political declaration on green procurement across EU cities
  • Strengthen cross-city learning and collaboration
  • Share evidence on the climate impact and co-benefits of procurement strategies

Key Terms

Green Procurement | Capacity Building | Public Sector Innovation | Cross-City Learning | Climate Policy

Activites and Innovations

  • Pilot innovative procurement practices tailored to local contexts in Košice and Aachen

  • Co-develop a modular, multilingual procurement toolkit for cities across the NetZeroCities community

  • Conduct feasibility studies and policy briefs to support replication in less-resourced cities

  • Facilitate structured peer learning through workshops, city exchanges, and webinars

  • Coordinate a political declaration process to secure long-term commitment and momentum

  • Integrate scientific analysis of co-benefits and systemic impacts with SINTEF support

Emission Domains

  • Mobile energy from vehicles and transport

  • Industrial process emissions

  • Scope 3 emissions

Levers of Change

  • Governance and Policy

  • Procurement

  • Learning and Capabilities

  • Technology and Infrastructure

Expected Impact and Outcomes

  • Empower cities to leverage procurement as a strategic tool for climate action
  • Deliver scalable tools and training to enable uptake in cities of all sizes
  • Catalyse political alignment and systemic innovation in green procurement
  • Increase demand for low-emission solutions across public and private sectors
  • Foster inclusive, climate-aligned governance and shared learning across Europe