About 30% weighting of climate in public procurement of buildings

The webinar was organized by the project “Inno4Tree – Climate change with innovation in the forest-based industries” where Norwegian Wood Cluster is part of the reference group.

The meeting was opened by deputy head of research Håkon Endresen Normann from NIFU, who talked about the Inno4Tree project (see fact box). Among other things, he referred to the challenges that arise due to a lack of coordination between policy areas – something the Office of the Auditor General of Norway has also pointed out as a challenge in combating climate change.

Eivind Selvig, partner at Civitas, was then invited to talk about the climate and environmental requirements and the exemption rule that makes it possible to go from award criteria to requirement specifications. He talked about what the requirement means for buyers and suppliers, and showed what procurement documents and supplier documentation can look like in practice. He also painted a picture of the future, where we can expect regulations that set limits for greenhouse gas emissions in buildings, as has already been introduced in Denmark.

Lise Dufset Urset is head of environment and climate in Hamar municipality, and she shared experiences from the municipality’s market dialogue with contractors and recycling companies. Hamar municipality has entered into a dialog with the players to establish criteria for climate and environment in procurement of buildings and facilities – to find the best solutions and ensure that local businesses can participate in the competitions.