The City of Växjö is a midsized city of 93,000 inhabitants, located in the Swedish province Kronobergs län. It has strong ambitions to achieve sustainability goals in all sectors. The City of Växjö is not alone, however.

In her recent State of the Union Address: charting the course out of the coronavirus crisis and into the future, President Ursula von der Leyden pledged to drive a sustainable and transformational recovery that will give Europe a global platform to lead economically, environmentally and geopolitically. This is not just a European or EU challenge. In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly set the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) , a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all“.

How do we achieve the SDGs?

Many actions are required or may contribute to this enterprise. Individual actions and collective actions. The actions of States and of global and international institutions. Think of how many of these actions spring to your mind. Chances are you missed one: procurement. You are excused for asking procurement what?

Procurement is an arcane term of art. Basically, it refers to the purchasing activities of the State, the municipalities, public universities and so on. In the EU, this translates into contracts for 1.8 trillion euro annually, representing around 14 % of the EU’s gross domestic product.

Procurement and sustainability can – and must – be coupled.

Public authorities can make an important contribution to sustainable consumption and production (what we call sustainable public procurement – SPP). They can, for instance, insist that good are produced and services are performed in compliance with standards requiring equal pay between man and women and avoiding child labour. They can prefer goods that are manufactured sustainably or services that are delivered reducing carbon emissions. SPP allows governments to leverage public spending to increase demand for sustainable products and services, based on social and environmental criteria, increasing their market share and providing business with tangible incentives.

This is all great but difficult. There are legal hurdles. The economics must work. Products and technologies must be studied.

At SAPIENS Network we are looking for brilliant minds ready to be involved in the practice of SPP and to do research to help SPP to become the new normal. SAPIENS stands for Sustainability and Procurement in International, European, and National Systems.

SAPIENS Network

SAPIENS Network is an international training network of 10 EU universities and 18 partner organisations (including international organisations, public purchasers, R&D centres, public and independent expertise centers, a lobbyist and a US academic institution (GWU). The network was created because unleashing the potential of SPP requires a new generation of experts capable of working across disciplines (law, human rights, economics, business sciences). SAPIENS will train the first generation of SPP experts sharing a common understanding of the challenges faced in achieving the SDGs.

Become an SPP expert; join SAPIENS Network!

Help the City of Växjö, and thousands of other cities and provinces and regions and States to mobilise the power of procurement to achieve the SDGs!

The City of Växjö is already active, increasing the share of organic food in public canteens – one egg at a time. But there is so much more than we can do and so many opportunities to innovate and educate ourselves and others along the way!

Browse through our website to learn more about all 15 projects and meet the lead researchers supporting this initiative. If you’re interested in applying to the program or keeping up to date with our progress, sign up for our email list to receive the latest news about SAPIENS.

The title image was taken by Jörg Hempel, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons.