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May 27, 2024
With a substantial demand for food from the public sector, sustainable public food procurement (PFP) initiatives possess the potential to significantly influence both food consumption and production patterns, delivering numerous social, economic, and environmental benefits to positively transform food systems and contribute to sustainable and healthy diets. Depending on policy and regulatory frameworks, PFP initiatives play a crucial role in determining the type of food purchased (food security and nutrition), the source of procurement (livelihoods, decent jobs, income), and the production methods employed (environmental sustainability). Notably, school feeding programs, serving as one of the largest and most widespread social safety nets globally with 418 million children benefiting.
This is why a new project led by FAO and UNEP has been launched to bolster the efforts of the One Planet Sustainable Public Procurement and Sustainable Food Systems Programmes. The project will involve crafting a regional pathway on Sustainable Public Procurement for Sustainable Food Systems, paving the way for in-country technical support for the implementation of recommended actions. The project aims to identify prioritized principles for adopting sustainable public procurement practices that integrate social and environmental considerations holistically into public food procurement objectives, processes, and assessments.
To achieve this objective, a comprehensive stocktaking assessment will be conducted, examining sustainable public food procurement policies and practices at a regional level. This assessment will specifically address the integration of environmental considerations, including climate, pollution, and biodiversity goals, alongside with socio-economic considerations, into public food procurement objectives, processes, and assessments . Subsequently, a consultation will be implemented with regional experts and key actors (whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach) to validate and socialize the findings. These results will serve as a foundation for identifying prioritized recommendations for action, leveraging global-level expertise and networks. Results will mark an initial phase in the progression towards advancing commitments for action from all involved parties and providing technical support for the implementation of these recommendations at the national level.
Learn more at One Planet Network News Center.
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category : Topics
May 20, 2024
During the Buildings and Climate Global Forum, held on the 7th and 8th of March 2024 in Paris , the One Planet Network organized the session “Decarbonizing buildings, leveraging the power of sustainable public procurement” in a joint collaboration with the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, UNEP and the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion & Ministry of Energy Transition of France; and in partnership with UNOPS, UNIDO, OECD, C40, Stora Enso, Skanska, EPA Ghana, French state Property Directorate (DIE), German Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building, Climate Group, Ministry of the Environment of Finland, and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management of the Netherlands.
The session convened diverse actors in a panel discussion including the public sector as well as the private sector and international organizations, with the aim to highlight the key role both the public and the private sectors play in creating the conditions for demand to successfully drive the decarbonization of the built environment through public procurement policies and practices, including a discussion of specific challenges, conditions to inspire innovation and create market readiness, and the social impact as well as the capacity-building needs.
Furthermore, the session focused on showcasing existing multi-stakeholder platforms and partnerships, such as the OPN flagship initiative “Mainstreaming circularity in the construction sector leveraging the power of sustainable public procurement”, UNIDO/IDDI Green Public Procurement pledge and the C40 Accelerators, that provide effective commitments to support and implement sustainable, low-carbon public procurement at scale through concrete objectives, tools and pathways, knowledge sharing and cooperation, and identify recommendations for amplifying their capacity to mobilize, foster new collaborations and raise the level of ambition.
Lear more at One Planet Network news center.
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category : Topics
May 13, 2024
EU policymakers recently decided to introduce a direct ban on the destruction of textiles and footwear, with some exemptions for small, micro and medium-sized companies.
In this briefing, the EEA takes stock of what is currently known about the volumes and destruction of returned and unsold textiles in Europe. The growth of online shopping, flexible return practices, changed consumer preferences and fast-fashion business strategies in Europe have resulted in increased shares of returned and unsold textiles.
Over the past years, fast fashion and luxury brands have been reported as destroying returned or unsold clothing, shoes and other textiles. Textile product destruction is a very good example of a ‘take-make-waste’ approach.
It analyses how European countries include circular economy and waste actions in their reporting on climate change mitigation policies and measures and how the introduction of additional measures can help accelerate future reductions of GHG emissions.
The briefing finds that waste management and the circular economy have considerable potential for mitigating climate change. Therefore, countries would benefit from including policies and measures in these areas in their climate policy mix.
Learn more at European Environment Agency website.
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category : Topics
May 7, 2024
The Buildings and Climate Global Forum, co-organised by France and the United Nations Environment Programme, with the support of the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, took place on 7-8 March 2024 in Paris and gathered for the first time ministers and high-level representatives of key organisations, to initiate a new impetus in international collaboration for building decarbonisation and resilience after the Conference of the Parties (COP) 28.
During this event, the Circular Built Environment group - led by the Ministry of the Environment Finland and RMIT University and operating under the Materials hub managed by GlobalABC, One Planet Network and Life Cycle Initiative - organised with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development a thematic session on the 'Circular economy in the built environment - A solution to the triple planetary crisis' on the 7th of March, with support from UNEP, Holcim, WorldGBC, UNOPS, UNIDO, and RMIT University.
The session raised awareness of the importance of circularity in the built environment and addressed challenges related to policy and market development encouraging the audience to focus on moving away from the linear model and instead committing to a circular economy model of the buildings and construction sector.
Three circular economy related recommendations of the Ten Whole Life Cycle recommendations for the Buildings breakthrough were launched in the session. The 10 consensus driven recommendations were developed by the Materials Hub and its two parallel working groups Circular Built Environment and Whole Life Policy Coalition that is led by the UKs Department of Energy Security through extensive stakeholder engagement including over 100 academic, policy and industry professionals from over 42 countries. To find our more please visit: https://globalabc.org/news/10-whole-life-cycle-recommendations-buildings-breakthrough
The Circularity assessment framework assessing the state of circularity of the built environment at the national level was also launched in the session. The Circularity assessment framework is funded by Finland, led by UNEP and developed by UNOPS. The piloting of the framework will start in Bangladesh this month by UN-Habitat. WBCSD also announced the launch of the Buildings CTI tool that assesses circularity at the buildings level in the session. To find out more about these two assessment frameworks please visit: https://globalabc.org/resources/calls-for-proposals/call-pilots-circularity-frameworks
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category : Topics
