The Italian Green ProcA Award
The CompraVerde-BuyGreen Forum, that was held in Rome on 1st and 2nd October 2015,
hosted also the second steering committee of the Green ProcA project, a workshop on the
Covenant of Mayors and the awarding of the Green ProcA Award.
The Forum is an international event devoted to GPP and provides an important meeting place
for the agents who are actively involved in the diffusion of a green procurement culture and in
the implementation of GPP actions. The Forum has the aim to support the relations and the
debates between institutions, enterprises and organized civil society, to facilitate the meeting
of supply and demand and to promote production and marketing of green products.
This edition of the forum hosted more than 200 participants with an increase of 33% with
respect to the previous edition. The event recorded more than 900 B2B exchanges with more
than 90 spokesmen for the dissemination of the information on business opportunities and
best practices. There were also some international guests such as the representatives of the
Municipality of Paris, of the Canadian Embassy and of the French Embassy, which is a driving
force of the project “Green embassies”.
The conferences dealt with the following topics: sustainable construction, material reclamation
and recycling, collective food service and sustainable feeding, workers’ rights and health,
energy saving electronic equipment, sustainable mobility and green procurement in the
tourism. The Forum provided the opportunity to grant a recognition to the companies that
successfully implemented environmental impact reduction policies and sustainable
procurement by means of: MensaVerde Award, Vendor Rating and Sustainable Procurement
Award, CompraVerde Award and CulturaInVerde Award.
At the Forum the second steering committee of Green ProcA project took place and a specific
workshop regarding Covenant of Majors and the application of green procurement policy.
The CompraVerde-BuyGreen Forum partners
The CompraVerde-BuyGreen Forum participants
Regione Lazio
Roma Capitale
Coordinamento Agende 21 Locali Italiane
Fondazione Ecosistemi Onlus
Adescoop-Agenzia dell'Economia Sociale
Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Tutela del
Territorio e del Mare
Ministero della Giustizia
Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico
Regione Basilicata
Regione del Veneto
Regione Sardegna
Regione Toscana
Città metropolitana di Milano
Città Metropolitana di Roma Capitale
Città metropolitana di Torino
Città metropolitana Roma Capitale
Provincia di Nuoro
Comune di Bologna
Comune di Collepasso (LE)
Comune di Genova
Comune di Monterotondo (RM)
Comune di Padova
Comune di Parma
Comune di Rosignano Marittimo (LI)
Comune di Torino
Rappresentanza in Italia della
Commissione Europea
ICLEI - Local Governments for
Sustainability
Agenzia del Demanio
Agenzia delle Entrate
Consip Spa
Enea-Agenzia Nazionale per le nuove
tecnologie, l'energia e lo sviluppo
economico sostenibile
Italia Lavoro
ISPRA - Istituto Superiore per la Protezione
e la Ricerca Ambientale
Agenzia Contratti Pubblici
Federculture
Federparchi
Federsanità ANCI
UNCEM - Unione Nazionale Comuni
Comunità Enti Montani
Unione Nazionale dei Segretari Comunali e
Provinciali
UPI - Unione Province d'Italia
RE.N.IS.A. - RETE NAZIONALE ISTITUTI
AGRARI
Agenzia Provinciale per la Protezione
dell'Ambiente di Trento - APPA
AICCRE
Ambasciata di Francia
ANBI - Associazione Nazionale Consorzi di
gestione e tutela del territorio e acque
irrigue
ANCI - Associazione Nazionale Comuni
Italiani
Associazione Borghi Autentici d'Italia
Associazione Città del Bio
Associazione Comuni Virtuosi
CNCA - Coordinamento Nazionale
Comunità di Accoglienza
ARPA Friuli Venezia Giulia
ARPA Piemonte
AssoArpa
Assocamerestero
AcquistiVerdi.it
Altra Economia Soc. Coop.
Asso.it - 4IT Group srl
APD San Paolo Ostiense - Roma
Armor Italia srl
Associazione Culturale Econote
Associazione DaSud
Associazione Italiana di Diritto
dell’Ambiente
Avviso Pubblico
Azienda Sanitaria Locale Nuoro
Banco Popolare
BBA Biotech srl
Bio Bank
BioEcoGeo - Corberi Sapori Editori
Bureau Veritas
Centro Naturopatico s.a.s.
CGIL Roma
Città Invisibile Soc. Onlus
CONI Servizi S.p.A.
Cooperativa I 12 Mesi
Cws-Boco Italia SpA
DEA Edizioni
Eco Dalle Città
Ecodom
Editrice AAM Terra Nuova srl
E-gazette.it - Puntocom srl
Eiteam scs
Ente Regionale per il Diritto allo Studio
Universitario di Cagliari
Epson Italia spa
Errebian S.p.A.
ESICERT - Istituto di Certificazione Etica
nello Sport
ETA BETA scs - EffettoTerra.org
Etimos Foundation
Executive Service srl
Festival Siciliambiente
FICEI - Federazione Italiana Consorzi Enti
Industrializzazione
FISH - Federazione Italiana Superamento
Handicap
Fondazione Global Compact Network Italia
Forum Terzo Settore
G.I.R.S.A.
General Beverage srl
General Membrane spa
Global Transport & Service srl
Grafica KC snc
Green Planner
Greenreport.it
GreenWatcher
Hotel Aquarium
I.Di.Med - Istituto per la promozione e la
valorizzazione della Dieta Mediterranea
I-Faber
Intercent-ER
Istituto di Management Scuola Superiore
Sant’Anna di Pisa
Italcementi
JUNGLE SRL
Lavori Pubblici - Quota Neve srl
Lupiae Servizi SpA
Maito srl
Marraiafura.com
Miscela Rock Festival
MITO Settembre Musica
Multi Media Coop - Tele Ambiente
Multiutility spa
Officine Green Building (OGB)
PALM Spa
Palm Work & Project Coop Soc Onlus
Parco Regionale dell'Appia Antica
Paredes Italia spa
PEFC Italia
Primaprint srl - EcoNews Periodico
PRODOTTI RICICLATI BY IDEACHARME
Publistampa Arti Grafiche snc
Recycling Industry
REGIONI&AMBIENTE
Remade in Italy
Renault Retail Group S.p.A.
RINNOVABILI.IT
Sardegna Ricerche
Solas sas
Sumus Italia srl
Sutter Industries S.p.A.
Think Green Eco Festival
Togreen srl
Uisp
Università Cà Foscari di Venezia
Università di Cagliari
Università Roma Tre
Verdecologia.it
Wecon srl
Werner & Mertz Professional srl
The CompraVerde-BuyGreen Forum awards categories
 Buy Green Award
This award reached the 8th edition and is aimed at rewarding the public administrations
which engaged for the active spread of green procurement. The award has the purpose
to provide a recognition to the administrations showing a special sensitivity about the
reduction of their activity on the environment and the health of the citizens.
 Green Canteen Award
This award reached the 7th edition and is aimed at rewarding the public, private and
non-profit organizations which actively contributed to the spread of green procurement
and sustainable consumption in catering.
 Green Verdor Rating Award
This award reached the 7th edition and is addressed to the small and medium
enterprises which adopted a system of environmental and social certification of their
suppliers.
 Green Culture Award
This award reached the 7th edition and is addressed to cultural events such as
theatrical, film, music, dance, visual arts and literary exhibitions and festivals. The
award has the purpose to provide a recognition to the organizers of cultural events who
reduced the impacts of their activity by managing the events and procuring the
necessary goods and services according to environmental and social sustainability
criteria.
 Green ProcA Award
The award has been established in a special dedicated section of the CompraVerdeBuyGreen Forum and is specifically targeted to the cities, towns and villages which
implemented GPP measures by means of a SEAP (Sustainable Energy Action Plan).
The award is part of the EU project “Green Proca – Green Public Procurement in
Action” that is aimed at promoting and spreading GPP among public administrations of
the project partner countries. The addressees of the projects are both the signatories of
the Covenant of Mayors who have already included the GPP actions in their SEAPs
and the public bodies willing to adhere to the Covenant and who have already set some
voluntary energy efficiency and CO2 reduction targets. Nonetheless, the award can be
given only to the public administrations which have adopted the SEAP before 30th June
2015. The awarding criteria are the following:
 Inclusion of GPP actions in the SEAP;
 Integration between GPP policies and SEAP;
 Actual implementation of the GPP actions described in the SEAP (proven
through stakeholders involvement, formal political commitments, resolutions,
monitoring activities, issued and awarded tenders, objectively achieved results,
etc);
 Life cycle costing approach to calculate budget and final balance costs;
 For the domains regulated by the Criteri Ambientali Minimi (Minimum
Environmental Criteria) of the National Action Plan for GPP, an extra score
bonus will be given to measures and criteria providing a higher degree of
efficiency, savings or technical and technological progress.
o Green ProcA Award application period
The period granted for the submission of the award applications was rather short
spanning from 23rd July 2015 to 08th September 2015. This limited time period
caused a reduction in the number of submissions due to the coincidence with a
holiday period (August is a holiday period in Italy) in which the majority of the
administrations works at reduced capacity.
o Green ProcA Award participants
The administrations that presented an application were:
 The city of Turin
 The Metropolitan area of Turin
 The University of Trento
 The village of Aradeo
 The village of Collepasso
 The village of Melpignano
 The village of Salve
The city of Milan and Rome (Metropolitanean area) expressed their interest
in participating but the application was not finalized.
o Green ProcA Award jury
The jury was made of a scientific committee composed of five representatives of
the GPPnet working group fueled by the Agenda 21 network, a representative of
the Ministry of the Environment. The committee was technically supported by
Consip and ENEA.
o Green ProcA Award ceremony
The Green ProcA Award ceremony was coincident with the CompraVerdeBuyGreen Forum awarding and took place on the final day of the Forum event
on 2nd October 2015 in Rome at Casa dell’Architettura.
o Green ProcA Award winning projects
 CITY of TURIN
Ex-aequo winner Special section GreenProca Award
(category: large Public Administrations and other public bodies)
 METROPOLITAN AREA of TURIN
Ex-aequo winner Special section GreenProca Award
(category: large Public Administrations and other public bodies)
 VILLAGE of SALVE
Ex-aequo winner Special section GreenProca Award
(category: small and medium Public Administrations and other public bodies)
 VILLAGE of MELPIGNANO
Ex-aequo winner Special section GreenProca Award
(category: small and medium Public Administrations and other public bodies)
o Green ProcA Award winning projects’ motivations:
http://www.forumcompraverde.it/index.php/premi/72-sito/2015/236-vincitori-premi-2015
 METROPOLITAN AREA of TURIN
The Metropolitan area of Turin demonstrated a consolidated and long-lasting GPP
policy that involved also other public bodies of its hinterland.
The area received the Award thanks to the special sensitivity showed for environmental
sustainability and to the support of a local (A.P.E. - Acquisti Pubblici Ecologici) and
international (Sustainable Public Procurement Regions) networks for the promotion of
GPP projects. Moreover, the Metropolitan area of Turin had the merit to have enhanced
the integration between the SEAP (Sustainable Energy Action Plan) and the GPP
policies through ad hoc working groups, to have adopted specific monitoring systems
for the CO2 emissions and to have introduced the Life Cycle Costing approach in some
tenders. Lastly, the Metropolitan area of Turin provided both basic and specialized
training courses and technical support for the inclusion of environmental criteria in the
tenders issued by the participants to the A.P.E. project.
 CITY of TURIN
Turin received the Award since, after having signed the A.P.E. protocol, invested
significantly in the GPP implementation measures in order to harmonize the local green
policies with the SEAP. The activities spanned several scopes: paper, furniture,
computer equipment, vehicles, green meetings, cleaning services, interventions on
buildings, food and catering services, electricity, soil amendments and textiles. A key
objective of the city was the reduction of CO2 emissions that was achieved through the
replacement of old-technology lamps with new generation LED, the provision of
electricity produced from renewable energies, the development of teleheating and
telecooling systems and the purchase of ecofriendly vehicles. Moreover, Turin adopted
the Strategic Environmental Assessment procedure in order to test and improve the
sustainability of the planning choices likely to have important impacts on environment
and cultural assets.
 VILLAGE of MELPIGNANO
Melpignano in collaboration with “GPP Salento” received the Award for the attention
devoted to sustainability and energy efficiency that were pursued through a set of
actions, such as: modernization of public lighting introducing a remote control system,
replacement of incandescent lamps with LED ones, promotion of a project for the
installation of photovoltaic panels on the roofs. It is worthwhile to stress the fact that the
revenues produced by this project is being reinvested for the improvement of the local
community quality of life. Furthermore, Melpignano created a web portal for the
dissemination of information on energy, environment preservation and green
procurement. The SEAP was elaborated on the basis of a well-developed technical and
regulatory analysis of needs, impacts and feasibility for the definition of actions and
priority areas.
 VILLAGE of SALVE
Salve in collaboration with “GPP Salento” received the Award since it showed a special
sensitivity for sustainability issues and the intention to commit to achieve energy
efficiency and waste reduction. The village developed its SEAP after a technical and
regulatory analysis of needs, impacts and feasibility for the definition of actions and
priority areas.
Among the main actions, we would like to remark the replacement of incandescent
lamps with LED ones, the “Smart Waste” project that was aimed at experimenting a
smart and technologically efficient way of waste collection, the project “Casa del riciclo”
(The house of recycling) allowing to save on waste disposal. Lastly, the village
implemented a project for the reduction of public light pollution and recorded besides
the primary purpose to have darker nights and reduce the accidents, a drop in the
public light excessive consumption. Furthermore, Salve created a web portal for the
dissemination of information on energy, environment preservation and green
procurement.
 Conclusions of the Green ProcA Award
Despite the unfavorable year period when the call for proposals of the Green ProcA award
was issued, the public administrations manifested a strong interest for the GPP issues. Not
only the large cities but also the small villages showed a desire to commit for a more
sustainable future and suggested to adopt a concept of GPP 2.0. This new concept appeared
rather innovative and captured the attention of the audience. The GPP 2.0 is intended to be a
participative approach to green purchases and environmental policies that put the citizens in
the foreground and to give them a starring role. This would allow to build an environmental
awareness and a sustainable consciousness among the civil society in order to stimulate the
politicians to preserve and further develop a green strategy for the local communities.
Moreover, such an approach may allow to overcome the problem of political turnover.
 Second Steering Committee of the Green ProcA Project
The Green ProcA awarding ceremony was matched with the second national steering
committee of the project that took place on October 2nd in the morning. Both the Italian project
members, Consip Spa and ENEA, and other important stakeholders such as the Ministry of
the Environment, Agenda21, Acquisti Verdi network and the Presidency of Borghi Autentici
were present and assessed the progress of the scheduled activities. They made a check of the
achieved project milestones and some projections for the remaining activities. The project
performance was considered satisfactory but the development of a GPP sensitivity among the
public administrations was considered a goal achieved only partially. This thesis is supported
by a survey conducted by ENEA by means of a survey in the Varese province. The
questionnaires were aimed at testing the progress in the implementation of the GPP activities
provided in the SEAPs. Only few administrations accepted to take part in the survey but the
few respondents manifested a genuine interest in acquiring more information and in adopting a
“greener” policy in their activities. The President of Agenda 21 stressed the need to train the
public administrators not only on the GPP main topics but also on the environmental changes
in order to allow them to develop a technical and scientific knowledge. This training is
expected to become the precondition for coherent and forward-looking policies of
environmental sustainability and social wellbeing.
 Workshop on the Covenant of Mayors
On October 2nd after the Green ProcA steering committee, the project members were joined by
other participants of the CompraVerde-BuyGreen Forum in order to draft a balance of the
results of the Covenant of Mayors for what concerns Italian cities and villages. The Forum
provided both the project members and the other participants with the opportunity to debate
very fruitfully on the GPP hot topics. The workshop became the occasion for a constructive
and inspired exchange of ideas, best practices and strategic intentions for the future. In Italy
the adhesions to the Covenant of Mayors were more numerous than in any other EU country
but the SEAPs show standardized actions and lack of connection with the needs of the
territory. What is more the local administrators appeared to be more interested in exploiting the
visibility coming from the adhesion than in actually implementing the actions contained in the
SEAPs. This is due to the lack of technical knowledge of the personnel in charge of writing the
action plans and the lack of a real synergetic linkage between them and the budget officers
who deal with the implementation stage. The narrow-minded attitude of the SEAPs writers
emerged from the absence of a shared and systematic approach between the administrations
of the same territory. Indeed, they did not manage to coordinate because of the parochial
rivalries between towns that narrowed the geographic scope of the SEAPs’ GPP intervention
measures or because of the different political parties of the administrators. Moreover, the
turnover due to the political cycles creates a discontinuity that is detrimental for the steady
implementation of the GPP actions.
 The aftermath of the abovementioned initiatives
The choice to hold both the Green ProcA steering committee and the workshop on the
Covenant of Mayors in occasion of the CompraVerde-BuyGreen Forum was the result of a
strategic plan to gather as much experts as possible to create a brainstorming environment.
The objective was fully achieved and both the committee and the workshop debate provided
numerous and insightful proposals. Furthermore, the participants expressed their points on
future scenarios and set the ground for possible collaborations. The network among Green
ProcA project members and stakeholders was reinforced and expanded.
The debates provided the opportunity to assess strengths and weaknesses of the GPP
progress in Italy and to highlight best practices and suggestions for the future:
o Strengths
The adhesion to the Covenant of Mayors required the calculation of a baseline
consumption assessment and to develop an action plan. The main result was
the identification of the most serious causes of impact on the environment. A
portrait of the status quo in terms of emission contribution by sector was
provided and transportation and industrial productive activities are pointed out
as the main responsible.
o Weaknesses
Monitoring is complex due to the absence of a shared and systematic measuring
system for the CO2 emissions and to the difficulties in obtaining the consumption
data from the large energy supply companies.
o Best practices
The public administrations of Turin area developed a protocol called A.P.E.
(Acquisti Pubblici Ecologici) to enforce the GPP at local level through
sustainable purchasing criteria. The association Borghi Autentici obtained
financing for cooperating with the energy supply companies to develop a web
interface to download the billing information.
o Suggestions for the future
The Ministry of the Environment was asked to play a coordination role in the
framework of the Covenant of Mayors and to identify a shared computational
methodology to calculate the CO2 emissions. Moreover, they suggested to
integrate the CAM (Criteri Ambientali Minimi) developed by the Ministry itself
with monitoring criteria for CO2. The purpose is to apply the CAM for the
monitoring stage of the activities provided by the SEAPs. Lastly, the Ministry
was asked to implement awareness campaigns in the schools to help the
youngsters to develop a sensitivity on this respect. They suggested also to
oblige the public administrations to motivate any derogation from the CAM
prescriptions that represent a compulsory procurement regulation for them.
Lastly, the current spending review policy was criticized and the life cycle cost
approach was suggested to keep into account the environmental and social
consequences of public procurement besides the mere cost evaluations.