Five EU cities gather under the CEPPI project to look for innovative energy solutions
White LED Street Lamp (photo on Flickr) by "Dominic Alves", licensed under CC BY 2.0
Birmingham (UK), Budapest (Hungary), Castellón & Valencia (Spain) and Wrocław (Poland) are joining efforts to look for more sustainable energy solutions through a pro-innovation procurement approach. Under the umbrella of the EU-funded CEPPI project, these five cities will demonstrate that by selectively intervening in scheduled public tenders, energy consumption can be reduced and, consequently, GHG emissions decreased. The goal of this 3-year project is to save at least 33GWh/year and to develop the capacity of public authorities to implement innovation procurement solutions for energy-related projects.
To achieve the objectives, several actions will be taken: procurement officers will be trained, public tenders with energy efficiency specifications will be launched, and suppliers will be invited to engage in dialogue with public authorities to analyse which innovative solutions can be applied.
The CEPPI Cities aspire to adopt a leadership role in their regions, as well as to create a framework that can be replicated by other cities. Workshops and networking events will be held to further this aim. By shifting from lowest price tenders to eco-innovative tenders that take life cycle costs into consideration, the participating cities will move to a win-win-win scenario that will benefit governments, suppliers and society. All lessons learned throughout the project will be compiled in a publication titled ‘PPI Guide for Low Energy Cities’.
For more information, contact meritxell.diaz@iclei.org.