Last Friday, 22 June, we organised the 2nd Dialogue for Social Responsibility at the UV in the Office of the Principal with the title ‘Public procurement: a tool to advance in a more responsible, fair and sustainable university’.
Inaugurated by Pilar Serra, Vice-Principal for Sustainability, Cooperation and Healthy Life, who stressed the strategic role of public universities in “paving the way and leading the change towards public procurement”, the Dialogues focused on three key elements:
- The regulatory framework for public procurement and its assessment. Ximena Lazo, Tenured University Professor at the University of Alcalá de Henares and coordinator of the Research Group on Green Public Procurement, offered us the main legislative routes and guiding principles that Europe has been setting for the promotion of public procurement.
- The transversality of social and sustainable axes in public procurement. David Comet, expert in responsible consumption of the Ideas group and Technician in the Area of Cooperation and Solidarity of the University of Córdoba, appealed to the need to understand the criteria for recruitment in a holistic and non-fragmented way.
- Practical examples and challenges in the implementation of public procurement in universities. Alberto Gil, Manager of the University of Zaragoza, appealed to the profitability, not only environmental and social, but also economic, of public procurement.
The facilitator, Nuria García, led the discussion on new topics related to raising awareness of the public procurement tool such as planned obsolescence. Benito Muros, from the Feniss association, creator of the ISSOP seal for repairable and long-lasting products, spoke in this regard. He emphasised the need for administrations to value the full lifecycle of the products they buy and to commit to alternative goods and services.
- Visit the website of the Chair for Cooperation and Sustainable Development
