News & Press Releases - Fair procurement for the public sector © Disposal companies City of Konstanz 13 June 2022 Constance and Trier: Innovation is two Two cities, two very different tenders, but one thing they have in common: Innovative processes demand significantly more sustainability than before. The city of Trier strategically addresses several product groups at the same time, municipal companies in Constance combine criteria on several levels of textile production and care. Interested? We support you as a municipality or municipal company in a sustainable textile tender in 2023. Contact us now... The consultations also include new experiences for FEMNET: This year, for the first time, the association is supporting two tenders at the same time. It is worth taking a look at the content here, because both procurement bodies want to break new ground with our support. All tender documents will subsequently be available via the Sustainability Compass. I want to imitate! Trier: Strategically reposition procurement This year, the city of Trier is dedicating two product groups – Workwear, protective clothing and IT hardware – In doing so, it aims to implement comprehensive sustainability criteria. It is supported by advice from the associations ELAN (IT hardware) and FEMNET (textiles). The city wants to make strategic sense for the future and has hung up the topic accordingly: In 2021, the City Council adopted a decision on sustainable procurement; Work is now underway to bundle the textile needs of various specialist offices in a framework contract for the first time. Through central procurement, sustainability aspects can be demanded much more effectively. The municipality has done a lot with this, but flanked by competent advice, it is now in the middle of implementation. Tenders will be prepared this year and are scheduled to be published in 2023. Constance: Sustainable rental clothing for municipal companies The procurement of work-rental clothing for around 180 employees is the subject of an ongoing tender by the technical companies (TBK) and waste disposal companies (EBK) of the city of Konstanz. The special feature: Sustainability criteria are combined at different levels of production (fibers and clothing) as well as for laundries. Laundries can score as a rental textile service provider by a low pollutant emissions during the transport of the laundry, as well as by the purchase of electricity from renewable energies. In July, the evaluation of the offers begins. For FEMNET, this is the first consultation on the subject of rental textiles with industrial washing, so that numerous preliminary discussions and researches were part of the preparations. Here, the association has built up new expertise, which can be incorporated into future consulting work. Proof-keeping based on the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act In order to simplify the documentation for bidding companies and the evaluation for the procuring entities, two questionnaires were developed, which can be retrieved after the completion of the call for tenders together with all the tender documents on the sustainability compass. What is new here is that the contents of the questionnaires are based on the requirements of the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act. In the context of the call for tenders, however, these will not be limited to large companies: In order to be taken into account in the procedure or to receive extra points in the evaluation, all tendering companies must demonstrate compliance with certain due diligence obligations. Successful bidder dialogue in Konstanz As part of a bidding dialogue, manufacturers, laundries, purchasers of the EBK and TBK as well as representatives of the city of Konstanz met on 18 May 2022 to explain the contents of the planned call for tenders and clarify questions. FEMNET guided through the day. It was exciting that, especially on the part of the laundries, further approaches for more ecological sustainability were put forward. However, as part of the ongoing call for tenders, the focus was on social sustainability. For example, in most textiles, in addition to the optional requirements (as described above), the basic labour rights in the ready-made garments are required. But we take these impulses with us for the future, because this shows that the market already has innovative ideas to offer and wants to see its efforts for more sustainability taken into account in public tenders.
