IGPN - International Green Purchasing Network

December 25, 2024

International Green Purchasing Network 2024 Annual Meeting Held to Strengthen Collaborations

2024 annual meeting of the International Green Purchasing Network-IGPN was held visually on December 18th. Participants from national Green Purchasing Networks (GPN), IGPN Council and IGPN Advisory Board, invited guests from UNEP, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, EU SWITCH-Asia SCP Facility office attended this meeting. The meeting was hosted by the IGPN Secretariat, China Environmental United Certification Center–CEC.

Mr. Chen Yanping, Chair of IGPN, presented his speech in the opening remarks, “Strengthening public demand for sustainable consumption and production, including circular economy approaches, is crucial, and this can be integrated with national and local procurement networks to increase the scale of green procurement practices. In 2024, the IGPN focused on the pilot testing and finalizing the GPN measurement methodology, activated the cooperation among members，hope that members actively support the methodology application, integrate the IGPN featured green purchasing network model into global sustainable public procurement projects and activities”,Mr. ZHU Shu, regional director of ICLEI East Asia, vice chair of IGPN, pointed out，ICLEL will work closely with IGPN to promote green development and transformation of countries and cities along the Belt and Road through collaborative research and selection of best practice cases。

During the meeting, Measurement methodology for Green Purchasing Networks and Pilot Testing Report was formally released to scale up IGPN featured Green Purchasing Network model by adopting this measurable, reportable and replicated comprehensive monitoring framework.

In the meantime, Ms. Gina Torregroza, Project Coordinator, UNEP One Planet Network Secretariat, presented the Driving SCP through Sustainable Public Procurement; Ms. Laetitia Montero, Programme Management Officer, Consumption and Production Unit Industry and Economy Division from UNEP shared Good Practices in the use of Ecolabelling and Sustainable Public Procurement. Additionally, IGPN secretariat, together with representatives from GPN Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, India, China and China Hong Kong recapped the progress and experiences in 2024 with thinking about the 2025 priorities as well.

Since CEC holds the IGPN Secretariat in 2018, it consistently works on the IGPN operational and members’ collaboration activities. Stated by Mr. LIU Zunwen, CEC general manager, in the summary speech, “Next, IGPN Secretariat will highlight the current theme on "low carbon, waste free and recycling", focus on the “Methodology" implementation through joint projects, expand the application scale of environmentally friendly products/services. On this basis, form into a fixed mechanism of “Green Purchasing Network Monitoring report, to achieve the mission of IGPN which is promoting green purchasing and environmentally friendly products and services".

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