As summer heatwaves and environmental resilience top institutional agendas across Europe, the event put a direct spotlight on turning public purchasing power into a strategic tool for local circular transformation.
Core Objectives & Shared Insights
The workshop focused heavily on strengthening functional expertise in Circular & Green Public Procurement (C/GPP) for public institutions, tourism organizations, and institutional food service providers. Key topics covered included:
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Strengthening Regional Value Chains: Participants analyzed how targeted purchasing criteria can reinforce local supply chains, support regional food producers, and increase the systemic resilience of local food networks.
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Mitigating Food Waste: The sessions mapped out actionable ways to incorporate resource efficiency, seasonal sourcing, and circular waste prevention methods directly into public hospitality and catering tenders.
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Interactive Solution Mapping: Combining expert keynote presentations with real-world case studies from public kitchens and the restaurant industry, attendees actively collaborated in moderated group work to design concrete sustainability criteria for future tenders.
Lessons Learned & Moving Forward
The workshop highlighted that circular food procurement effectively drives regional economic cycles while meeting climate mandates. However, participants also identified recurring structural hurdles, such as limited human and financial resources, complex legal contracting procedures, and fluctuating bulk availability of local sustainable goods.
A central takeaway from the day was that successful implementation does not require overnight structural overhauls. Strategically planned, small, incremental steps can achieve significant positive results when backed by strong institutional commitment and early stakeholder collaboration. The valuable insights gathered during this workshop will directly support the roll-out of the CE-PRINCE Action Plan for transforming regional procurement systems.
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Organiser: SFG – Steirische Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft m.b.H.
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Target Sectors: Agri-food, Tourism, Public Administration
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Location: Graz, Austria