Procurement beyond price : Sustainability and CSR in public purchasing

International conference

On 4-5 May 2017 Centre for Enterprise Liability (CEVIA) will host a two-day international conference at the Faculty of Law of the University of Copenhagen,  where researchers from the CSR Legal Research Network, the SMART project and other renowned specialists discuss timely developments relating to the field of procurement, sustainability and CSR.

11th April, 2017, Source : University of Copenhagen, http://jura.ku.dk

The global value of public procurement spending is enormous. Just the OECD countries alone spend a total of €1000 billion per year. In the EU over 250 000 public authorities each year spend around 14-19% of GDP on the purchase of services, works and supplies. In many sectors such as energy, transport, waste management, social protection and the provision of health or education services, public authorities are the principal buyers. Within specific industry sectors, the sheer scale of public procurement spending and their supplier selection decisions, can literally create and shape a market and impact lives of citizens across the country at large.

These days, public procurement is no longer just about buying the cheapest possible supplies or services. Instead, the new sustainable procurement is understood as a process whereby organizations meet their needs for goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a lifetime basis in terms of generating benefits not only to the organization, but also to society and the economy, whilst minimizing damage to the environment. The sustainability agenda has been broadly discussed by the European Union in regards to promotion of green and socially conscious governmental contracting. However, due to deficiency in regulating legislation, administrative pressures and lack of training, sustainable procurement methodology, coupled with the lack of accountability on CSR policies, is not used as often as desired.

Key benefits

As a result of attending this conference participants will:

• Understand the complexity of procurement beyond price from legal, business and sociological perspective
• Gain knowledge regarding differentiation between sustainability and corporate social responsibility in procurement context
• Gain an insight into how sustainable procurement considerations including CSR may be incorporated to the procurement process – best practices
• Understand the challenges and limitations in CSR incorporations in procurement
• Recognise the critical importance of human rights protection and anticorruption in procurement

As Romanian Union for Procurement Professional we salute PhD, Law, Professor Dacian DRAGOS presence at this event as lecturer with topic : CSR Pillar 1 – Anti Corruption ! 

Topics to be covered include

• Different faces of sustainable procurement and successful case studies
• What type of social considerations are relevant for procurement and how to include them
• Relevance of Human Rights in procurement
• What are the challenges, pitfalls and risks when considering CSR and other sustainability concerns in procurement

The conference Registration is now open to scholars, public sector bodies (i.e. contracting authorities) , private sector bodies (i.e. procurement managers) and other professionals with an interest in this area. See further here:

Details

Time : 4-5 May 2017

Place: Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, Conference/flex room, ground floor, room 8A-0-57, Karen Blixens Plads 16, DK-2300 Copenhagen S

Organizers: CEVIA, CSR Legal Research Networkand the SMART project

Sponsors: BravoSolution

Media Partners: EPPPL