Greening of contracts

This web section includes information on the greening of contracts and on reference manuals for the gradual greening of procurement processes within our own companies and franchises of the AMB and city councils.

About greening
At present the Plan for the greening of contracts at the AMB is being drafted, to meet axis 4 of the PSAMB (Production and consumption means). This plan will be the roadmap that will govern the inclusion of environmental criteria (low carbon criteria in some cases) into the technical bidding specifications for future contracts with the AMB.

Up until now, four bidding specifications have been made greener, and can be checked out in the Contractor's profile:
  • NitBus Service.
  • Procurement of multi-task machinery (computing).
  • Metropolitan Programme for Sustainability Education.
  • Management of the composting plant in Sant Cugat del Vallès.
  • Reponsible procurement web
    The AMB has created a responsible procurement portal to provide information on the environmental aspects that should be considered for the procurement of products and the contracting of services. This portal also included advice on new good practices for administrations and companies to reinforce the environmental improvements in terms of procurement, such as rationalizing needs, making good use of the products, monitoring services, training personnel or disseminating information on sustainability. There is also a web portal providing information on responsible procurement (and contracting) in municipalities and companies linked to the AMB areas.

    Reponsible procurement (cat)
Projects and memberships
The AMB participates in three European projects for the greening of public contracts.
  • GPP 2020
    A European initiative that promotes public contracting of low carbon emissions, co-funded by the Smart Energy for Europe Programme. A green contract and the reduction of CO2 emissions obtained will be tracked.

    Within this project, the AMB has replaced 24 pieces of multifunction computer equipment (photocopier, scanner, printer, etc.), representing threefold savings: environmental, energy and financial, and it has been defined as a case study by the GPP2020: further information (cat).

    GPP2020 web
  • GPP Helpdesk
    European initiative for good practices in public contracting.

    Greening the maintenance contract for metropolitan parks has been a way to actively participate in this greening initiative. The work done by the AMB led to a special mention in the GPP News-Alert magazine:

    The City of Barcelona makes firm commitment to SPP
  • SPP green procurement regions
    Green procurement project coordinated by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, in the framework of the 2020 horizon project ‘Innovative Energy Solutions'. It allows for participation in public green purchases done voluntarily, obtaining technical and legal support for internal procedures, etc.

    Web SPP Regions

    Web ICLEI
  • GPP Helpdesk
    Contact
Reference manuals
The Barcelona Metropolitan Area has a series of publications containing practical and comprehensive information on the gradual greening of contracts within its own companies and with AMB franchises. These manuals are also handed out to city councils that are in the process of making their contracts greener.

A highlight of these manuals is the set of environmental criteria applicable to the procurement of products and services. The manual includes information on vehicles, materials and office furniture, maintenance, cleaning and disinfection, equipment and office machinery and computing, as well as catering services and automatic vending machines.