Transcript Sonnino
Local Food and Sustainable City-Regions: The Potential of Public Procurement Dr. Roberta Sonnino School of City and Regional Planning Cardiff University Searching for Sustainable Development: The Power of the Public Sector Public procurement as the sleeping giant of economic development policy – in the EU, the public procurement spend amounts to ca. 16% of the gross domestic product – In the UK, the public sector spends some £ 150 billion/year, or around 13% of its GDP Significant opportunity to promote socially and environmentally friendly products and services – concept of sustainable procurement Sustainable public procurement Bringing together the business and the policy arms of government is what sustainable procurement is about. It is about how the government’ s immense buying power can be used to make rapid progress towards its own goals on sustainable development. […] Sustainable procurement – in short using procurement to support wider social, economic and environmental objectives in ways that offer real long-term benefits, is how the public sector should be spending taxpayers money (Neville Simms, UK Sustainable Procurement Task Force, 2006) Sustainable Public Procurement: The Potential of Local Food Food re-localization as a necessary (but not per se sufficient) aspect of sustainable public procurement systems – Environmental benefits – Multiplier effect on the local economy – Shared commitment to the objectives of sustainability Re-localizing the Public Food Systems: The Barriers Cost-cutting culture – “best value” wrongly interpreted as “low cost” Wrong perception that food re-localization is not allowed by the EU legislation. In fact: – Article 6 of the Treaty of the European Union (1997) requires the integration of environmental and social objectives into all EU’s policies – Article 26 of the 2004 Public Sector Directive Re-localizing the Public Food Systems: The Opportunities If it is set out in a non-discriminatory way, there’s no doubt whatsoever that you can use as your technical specification that all foodstuff must be organic, full stop. […] It is legitimate to say “we want foodstuff that is not older than”, it’s a legitimate idea…If that means in practice that it will have to be locally-grown, so be it! It remains a legitimate criterion, but it is not a legitimate criterion if you say that it has to be produced within 10 kilometres from the school. Interview at DG INTERNAL MARKET, 2006 Re-localizing the Public Food Systems: The Benefits The County of East Ayrshire (Scotland) has re-localized its school food chain – Products broken into 9 lots to attract local producers – Innovative award criteria based on quality, rather than price Re-localizing the Public Food Systems: The Benefits Multiplier effect of £ 160,000/12 schools on local economy Local sourcing has helped the Council to save almost £ 100,000 in environmental costs -- food miles, packaging waste Increased citizens’ satisfaction with the service Social Return on Investment Index of 6.19 Re-localizing the Public Food Systems: The Benefits The City of Rome (Italy) has also partly relocalized its enormous school food system through creative procurement: – Emphasis on PDO/PGI products – Products from “biodedicated” food chains – “Guaranteed freshness” Re-localizing the Public Food Systems: The Benefits In 2009: – – – – – 67.5% of the food was organic 44% of the food came from ‘biodedicated’ food chains 26% of the food was local 14% of the food was Fair Trade 2% of the food came from social cooperatives Re-localizing the Public Food Systems: Some Conclusions Municipal governments as food chain innovators – food security as a matter of production and access Need to establish mechanisms that: – facilitate the diffusion of knowledge (good practice is a bad traveller) – scale up and protect urban food strategies to create sustainable city-regions - regions that are characterised by reciprocal and synergistic relations between urban, peri-urban and rural areas