The recent study on Green Public Procurement (GPP) obstacles in Estonia has shown that procurers lack practical and user-friendly guidelines for GPP. Typically, the procurement manuals are long pdf files with lots of text that are not easy to use. Therefore, with the support of the CircPro project and online circular procurement guideline was developed to support procurers on how to conduct circular procurement.
The guidelines have four main parts:
• Nature of circular economy (green outer circle): includes the definition of the circular economy and explanation of the role of procurements in achieving the circular economy.
• Definition and approaches of circular procurement (upper-middle half-circle): includes an overview of procurement concepts (green, sustainable, circular procurement and procurement of innovation), description of circular procurement approaches and levels (product level, supplier level, system level), and explanation of procurement of function (as opposed to procuring a specific product).
• Legal framework for green and circular public procurement (lower-middle half-circle): includes European and Estonian legal framework.
• The step-by-step guideline for circular procurement (middle circle): The central part of the guide provides step-by-step instructions for organising circular procurement. The guide offers instructions at two levels: the strategic level - for the organisation's managers and decision-makers (the organisation's procurement strategy, employee involvement and overall procurement management); and the procurement level, which covers topics such as procurement preparation, market research, technical specifications, selection of the procurement procedure, defining criteria for circularity.
The guide is intended primarily for public sector decision-makers and anyone involved in purchasing / procuring products or services. The guideline follows the Regional Guidelines developed during the CircPro project.
The guideline is free of charge, does not require any registration but is available only in Estonian. It can be accessed here http://ringhanked.ee/.
The online guidelines will be introduced to stakeholders during training seminars on 9 and 10 December 2021. The training on 10 Dec is dedicated to Tallinn Municipality and on 9 Dec for all municipalities.
