Green Purchases

The University of Padua has long been committed to promoting sustainability in procurement. By supporting those in charge of procurement and the central purchasing bodies of public administrations, the University participates in various round tables at national, regional and municipal levels to establish Green Public Procurement (GPP) procedures. The goal is to integrate the environmental and social requirements in the purchasing policy and develop sustainable public works.

At the operational level, in addition to the application of the Minimum Environmental Criteria (MEC) in the purchase of goods and services, the University introduces further measures in the tender documents to stimulate the market to propose new solutions, also for the product categories in which specific MECs are not yet envisaged. The University actively supports the Forum CompraVerde Veneto and other green procurement initiatives.

Networking with the territory for Green Public Procurement

In particular, the University adheres to two aspects of the 2019 Protocols of agreement.

The first aspect involves a five-year agreement between the Municipality of Padua, the CCIAA of Padua, and the Italian Local Agenda 21 Coordination to facilitate joint training, education and communication actions to improve and implement GPP in Padua.

The second, promoted by the Veneto Region, includes the universities of Padua, Ca’ Foscari of Venice, Verona and IUAV of Venice, Unioncamere of Veneto and ARPAV. The objective was to create an annual guideline of operational best practices of MECs and the principles of circular economy in public procurement through a regional Memorandum of Understanding on green procurement, which later became one of the winners of the Italian Forum PA 2021 Award.

E-procurement: the dematerialization of purchases

Intending to make purchases more sustainable, efficient and transparent, the University has created a process to manage tenders and practices for any amount through digital platforms. In 2020, UBUY replaced the previous telematics systems and deactivated the Procurement Portal and the Electronic Marketplace (MeUnipd). The new UBUY platform will allow the implementation of a new module, called the Procurement Process, which uses digitized purchase requests and digital tender dossiers.