Companies become aware by applying circular criteria in their purchases

I Workshop on Circular Economy in Public and Private Contracting

On September 22, the first workshop of our InCEPPP project took place where we talked about the circular economy in public and private Contracting. A conference that we organized in Malaga within the framework of the Greencities forum on urban intelligence and sustainability.

The objective of this workshop was to bring together experts in circular purchasing, both public and private, to share their experience and raise awareness on this topic so that companies start applying these circular criteria in their own organization.

After the welcome, our colleague Sara Hernández made an introduction on Circular Economy and how to apply it to public and private contracting. In addition, she presented us with the InCEPPP project financed by the Erasmus + program, within the framework of which this workshop was organized, and shared some of its main results such as the Circular Public and Private Purchase Methodology.

Afterwards, Rocío Muñoz, Coordinator of the R&D&I Promotion and Knowledge Transfer area of the Andalusian Knowledge Agency, talked to us about Public Procurement of Innovation in the Andalusian administration and how it is related to circular public procurement. Adrián Izquierdo, from the General Directorate of Water Infrastructures of the Junta de Andalucía presented us as an example of Innovative Public Procurement (CPI) that applies circular criteria the Project “Energy optimization and circular economy for purification in medium-sized towns”, whose objective was adapt and improve the medium-sized wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) in Andalusia.

Next, Verónica Ramírez, Director of Operations of the Smart City Cluster, talked about public procurement and circularity strategies in cities from her experience working with different city councils.

We finished the workshop with a block of inspiring experiences, where we could see different practical cases. In the first place, Luis Miguel Fernández, Coordinator of Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Circular Economy at APROFEM, presented us with his experience applying circularity strategies thanks to the application of Action Plans in SMEs and the entrepreneurial fabric.

After this intervention, it was the turn of Inmaculada Cuenca, Environmental Technician at EMASESA, who presented us with the project “MITLOP: circular economy in urban water services” and explained the main challenges they have faced and the different measures they have proposed to increase the circularity of its processes.

Finally, Miguel Villén, Director of Business Development at BIOTONOMY AB together with our CEO Antonia Lorenzo, presented our Vertical Ecosystem project, the first vertical hydroponic garden irrigated with reclaimed water in the city of Malaga as an example of the application of the circular economy in the water resource.