All public services in Ludwigsburg enjoy “Cradle to Cradle” office material thanks to green public procurement

Stationery
Type of organisation or company
Country
Germany
Language for original content
Key Area
Submitted by
ICLEI
Ongoing
No
Description

The city of Ludwigsburg in Germany has a sustainable development strategy that includes the use of procurement to achieve its sustainability goals, instructing all public procurement departments to follow “Cradle  to  Cradle” principles in their procurement and awarding criteria.

In this context, the  city wanted to award a new two-year framework agreement for office stationery and office material to fulfil the demand in all public administration departments as well as all schools, day  care  centres,  and  public  companies.  A  list  of  38  product  groups  and  295  individual  products was defined with ambitious sustainability criteria.  For  products  where no  clear  sustainable  option  was  available on the market, bidders had to fill in a product declaration, which is guided by Cradle to Cradle principles. This approach encouraged suppliers whose products could comply with some sustainability criteria, even though no certification is available.

Sustainability criteria of the tenders include circularity in aspects such as material cycle, and take-back and reuse schemes.

Main activity field
Main results

For this framework procurement, green criteria were included both in the technical specifications and in the award criteria. Bidders found the sustainability criteria challenging to fulfil with their own product range and included new products specifically for this tender.

The tender was awarded to Lyreco, which commissioned the development of a new product that adhered to higher sustainability standards (a sticky note cube that complies with “Blauer Engel” certification) to become eligible. The City of Ludwigsburg observed that the market was made more aware of concepts such as “Cradle to Cradle” thanks to the bidders’ declaration that had to be included for some products.