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Agenda

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The conference programme appears below.

 

Tuesday 27 November, 2018

Morning

09:00 – 10:30

Welcome and Keynote Presentations


Marzena Rogalska, Director of the Directorate for Single Market for Public Administrations, DG GROW, European Commission
Aongus Hegarty, President Europe, Middle East and Africa, Dell EMC
Deborah Albers, Vice President, Responsible Business Alliance

10:20 – 11:30

Exploring Social and Environmental Sustainability

The panel will discuss topics surrounding social and environmental sustainability. With Europe’s citizenry demanding a greater emphasis than ever before on the sustainability of production and consumption, with concepts such as the Circular Economy permeating many aspects of society and industry, the public sector must lead the way through its own purchasing decisions. The panel session will explore more in depth how governments can stimulate public procurement of sustainable goods and services, how public buyers should apply such criteria in practice and how suppliers from different sectors deal with such requirements.

Kestutis Sadauskas, Director of Circular Economy and Green Growth, DG ENV, European Commission
Peter Nohrstedt, Sustainability Manager, SKL Kommentus Central Procurement Board
Peter Defranceschi, Head of Brussels Office, ICLEI
Sören Enholm, CEO, TCO Development
Farid Yaker, Programme Officer, United Nations Environment Economy Division

Moderator: Louise Koch, Corporate Sustainability Director, Dell EMC

11:30 – 12:30

Social and Supply Chain Sustainability in Procurement


Inger Ek, Director General, Upphandlingsmyn digheten/ The National Agency for Public Procurement Sweden
Marc Tarabella, Member, European Parliament
Ilse Beneke, Head of Competence Centre for Sustainable Procurement, German Federal Ministry of the Interior
Kilian Moote, Project Director, Know the Chain
Nancy Gillis, CEO, Green Electronics Council
Moderator: Louise Koch, Corporate Sustainability Director, Dell EMC

Afternoon

12:30 – 13:30

Lunch & Networking

13:30 – 14:15

Keynote Interview Session


Björn Claeson, Director, Electronics Watch
Thomas de Jonghe, Procurement Advisor, City of Ghent, Belgium
Deborah Albers, Vice President, Responsible Business Alliance
Moderator: Brian Maguire, Journalist, EBX Media

14:15 – 16:00

Roundtable Working Group Sessions

These group sessions will look to address some of the specific issues that are faced within particular sectors. The sessions will be moderated and participants can join the topics most relevant for them. Please see below for the proposed working group table topics.

14:15 – 16:00

The EU perspective: What should be the European Commission's role to help increase the uptake of sustainable procurement in the EU?

While the EU has produced and updated a number of Public Procurement Directives that include specific direction on the use of sustainability criteria, their limited uptake by Member States’ authorities remains disappointing.
This session will examine if the European Commission and Parliament need to be doing more to encourage a uniform and objective application of these criteria and ensure a common interpretation and weighting. Subjects to be discussed will include an examination of practical support the Commission can provide; critique of what effective guidelines could look like and how they could be applied; and how the Commission can support the exchange of best practices across the EU.

14:15 – 16:00

The National Perspective: What should Member States do to increase the uptake of sustainable procurement in the EU?

The revised EU Public Procurement Directives have created new opportunities to make more use of sustainability criteria in public procurement but that is not always reflected in their application in the Member States. Several have been slow to transpose these recommendations into their national legislations and have struggled to translate the new legal framework into frequent, practical use of these criteria in the procurement decision making processes.

This session will discuss what the role of Member States should be in driving more sustainable public procurement decision making; how they can better facilitate the expertise and knowledge base of public procurers including supporting local authorities; and how best practice can be shared and leveraged inside the different Member States.

Peter Nohrstedt, Sustainability Manager, SKL Kommentus Central Procurement Board

14:15 – 16:00

What can the private sector contribute to increase the use of SPP criteria: sector guidelines and initiatives, use of labels to create transparency for public procurers

Non-governmental organisations and the private sector, through market demand and future oriented business strategies, have in many areas not waited for decisions makers and regulators, but have taken often the lead in the development and application of societal and environmental sustainability criteria. Whether it is multinationals demonstrating best-practice or the development of sustainability certifications and labelling schemes, those in public procurement can apply learnings from the private sector to achieve their goals.

This session will establish where this is possible through the examination of specific private sector initiatives; the use of labels and certification schemes that can be applied; whether there can, and should, be greater alignment between public and private sectors with regard to procurement practices and where industry wide initiatives may be developed to develop criteria which do not stop at using minimum requirements but also seek to encourage and reward outperformers.

Deborah Albers, Vice President, Responsible Business Alliance

16:00 – 16:15

Closing Keynote


Jyrki Katainen, Vice President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, European Commission

Logistics

When

Tuesday 27 November, 2018
09.00 to 17.00

CET

 

Where

The Stanhope Hotel, Brussels

Rue du Commerce 9,
B-1000 Brussels,
Belgium

Tel: +3225069111

info@stanhope.be

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