Sustainable and impactful procurements
Nearly half of the income of Palvelukeskus Helsinki consists of various procurements, the annual value of which can exceed EUR 45 million. The tendering, procurements and contract management of Palvelukeskus Helsinki are implemented, maintained and developed by Palvelukeskus Helsinki’s procurement and tendering team. We also participate in the city’s joint procurements. Our stakeholder cooperation includes the city’s internal networks as well as non-city operators.
Our operations are based on Directive 2014/24/EU and the Finnish Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts (1397/2016), EU and national procurement guidance, as well as the guidelines and policies of the City of Helsinki and Palvelukeskus Helsinki. The most important of these documents are described below.
- The National Public Procurement Strategy is based on eight interdependent priorities. These priorities guide public procurements in the direction of strategic management, professionalism and pioneership, not forgetting well-functioning markets, innovation and sustainability. Read the National Public Procurement Strategy (the link opens in a new tab and takes you to an external website).
- The Government Programme of Prime Minister Sanna Marin includes policies related to the development of public procurement. The Government Programme takes a stand on increasing sustainable procurement and climate-friendly food services. Read the Government Programme (the link opens in a new tab and takes you to an external website).
- The Act on Environmental and Energy Efficiency Requirements for Vehicle and Transport Service Procurements (“Clean Vehicles Act”, 740/2021) regulates the environmental and energy efficiency requirements for public procurement of vehicles and transport services. The aim of the act is to increase the share of low-emission and zero-emission vehicles in new procurement of vehicles and shipping/transport services and to promote the use of alternative fuels. Read the Act on Environmental and Energy Efficiency Requirements for Vehicle and Transport Service Procurements (opens in a new tab).
- The purpose of the City of Helsinki’s procurement strategy is to support not only the city strategy but also the provision of the city’s services. The procurement strategy describes the means of developing and improving procurement, as well as three main themes: functional markets and innovation promotion, impact and sustainability, and procurement management and skills. Read the City of Helsinki’s procurement strategy.
- Helsinki has been a Fairtrade City since 2013. This title is awarded to cities that commit to promoting Fairtrade activities and to making ethical procurement decisions. Reilu kauppa ry (Fairtrade Finland) strives to strengthen the position of producers in developing countries, living wages, companies’ responsibility for human rights and adaptation to climate change, in particular. Read more about Fairtrade municipalities and cities (the link opens in a new tab and takes you to an external website).
- The City of Helsinki’s environmental policy (to be updated in spring 2023)
- In all procurements with a value of more than EUR 200,000, Palvelukeskus Helsinki evaluates the possibility of using an employment condition in accordance with the City’s guidelines. The aim of the employment condition is to help people in a difficult position in the labour market to find employment. Based on the employment condition, our contract partner offers a job or an apprenticeship to one or more long-term unemployed persons, young people, immigrants, persons with partial work ability or persons with disabilities. Read more about employment through procurement.
- The City of Helsinki’s Roadmap for Circular and Sharing Economy includes the goal of increasing the sustainability of products (such as furniture, machinery, vehicles and ICT equipment) by using criteria that promote sustainability in procurement. The criteria may be related to service life, maintainability of materials, guarantee period, repairability and recyclability. The criteria may be minimum requirements or grounds for comparison. Explore the Roadmap for Circular and Sharing Economy and the Circular Economy Tracker.
- The guidelines for tackling shadow or grey economy govern the obligations of the City’s contracting entities under the Act on the Contractor’s Obligations and Liability when Work is Contracted Out. In accordance with the guidelines, we investigate, for example, the registration of a service or a supplier in the Trade Register, Prepayment Register, Employer Register and VAT Register. Read the Guidelines for Combating Grey Economy
- The strategic themes and goals of Palvelukeskus Helsinki are 1) we give better service every day, 2) we act responsibly, sustainably and productively, 3) we take care of the quality of services and modernise them, 4) we are a desirable workplace and take care of our personnel, and 5) we improve together, participate and change the operating culture. Palvelukeskus Helsinki’s value promise and values are cooperation, reliability, creativity and sustainability.
- The procurement strategy themes of Palvelukeskus Helsinki are impact, sustainability (including financial), functioning markets and knowledge management. We promote the procurement strategy themes through 14 concrete objectives with measures and indicators.
- Objectives related to procurement in the sustainability programme include
– stricter climate criteria for food procurement,
– increasing the use of Fairtrade products and other sustainability-certified products in Palvelukeskus Helsinki’s procurement,
– promoting impact-based procurement, and
– monitoring of the sustainability criteria for procurements during the contract period.
You can find the full sustainability programme here.
Palvelukeskus Helsinki has worked persistently on sustainable procurement. This timeline presents the key milestones of our efforts:
2019: Food transport services reach the final in the ‘Vuoden taidokkain hankinta’ competition
Food transport services put out to tender by Helsinki reached the final in the ‘Vuoden taidokkain hankinta’ (Best Procurement of the Year) procurement competition. The competition is organised by the Public Procurement Advisory Unit of the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities. The competitive logistics of food services, including home meal transports, daycare and school meal transports and food transports between units, which were put out to tender in 2018, received praise for their positive environmental and cost impacts, in particular.2019: Criteria database adopted for sustainable procurement
Palvelukeskus Helsinki has at its disposal a comprehensive database of procurement sustainability criteria, including criteria that promote ecological and social as well as financial sustainability in procurement. We are constantly updating the database as we adopt new criteria.2020: Milk and meat procurement included in the Canemure sub-project
Procurement preparation mapped out and developed procurement criteria that reduce the impact on the climate and environment, and investigated possibilities for using carbon footprint calculation in competitive tendering and during the contract period.2020: Palvelukeskus Helsinki’s sustainability, quality and environment team and procurement and tendering team start regular cooperation meetings
2020: Form for preliminary determination of sustainability completed
The preliminary determination form helps us ensure that the preparation of the coming procurement takes into account not only the special characteristics of the procurement, but also its sustainability aspects. We use the tool to carry out a systematic analysis of the realisation of ecological, social and financial sustainability in procurement. In addition to sustainability perspectives, we also assess the innovation potential of the procurement as well as key contractual factors. The determination work always involves at least experts familiar with the substance of the procurement, Palvelukeskus Helsinki’s sustainability experts and procurement experts.
2021: Strategic themes drawn up for Palvelukeskus Helsinki’s procurements
The procurement strategy themes are based on the National Public Procurement Strategy and the City of Helsinki’s procurement strategy. Our procurement strategy themes are impact, sustainability (including financial), functioning markets and knowledge management. We promote the procurement strategy themes through 14 concrete objectives with measures and indicators.
2021: Palvelukeskus Helsinki’s Code of Conduct published
2022: Palvelukeskus Helsinki’s first procurement barometer published
The procurement and tendering team developed a procurement barometer survey to determine the opinions of economic operators on the procurement activities of Palvelukeskus Helsinki. The respondents represented tenderers, our contract suppliers and other persons who had studied invitations to tender. We use the responses to the procurement barometer to develop and guide our procurement activities in the right direction. The questions in the procurement barometer support the procurement strategy themes and objectives of Palvelukeskus Helsinki.