On 25–26 March 2026, partners of the ChemClimCircle‑2 project gathered in Copenhagen for two days of discussions, knowledge exchange, and hands-on work, bringing together municipalities and experts from all countries participating in the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme.
During the meeting, work continued on solutions to make public procurement a driving force for climate‑neutral, circular, and chemically safe (CCC) solutions. Within the project, pilot procurements will be carried out by applying criteria in these three areas and assessing their environmental impact.
Across the partnership, procurements are planned in various sectors – from construction and information and communication technologies (ICT) to textiles, cleaning, and catering services.
Vidzeme Planning Region is working on a pilot procurement case of catering service for the Vidzeme Innovation Week conference. The annual event brings together around 150 participants. By procuring sustainable catering services, organization continues the groundwork laid in its projects related to establishing sustainable food systems, as well as activities aligned with the Bioregion initiative.
The aim is to demonstrate the environmental impact of such procurement compared to one that does not include sustainability criteria, therefore showing their significance.
To be noted, the upcoming reform of the public procurement system in Latvia means removing mandatory green public procurement criteria, including for food and catering procurement. Instead, sustainability criteria would become voluntary, and the pilot cases of the CCC-2 project can set a point of reference for further procurements.
Partners also received a first insight into the “CCC Navigator” – a practical online tool that will help public authorities integrate climate, circular economy, and chemical safety criteria into procurement. The platform is currently under development and will become one of the project’s final outputs.
The project partners – experts in various sustainability fields – are also developing training activities for procurement specialists to ensure wider application of the CCC approach. These will include both practical guidance and real-life examples from pilot projects.
The next steps in the project include preparing environmental impact assessments of the upcoming procurement, developing tender evaluation criteria and conducting market pre-study.
