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Promoting Sustainable and Innovative Procurement Culture: Business Opportunities for Public Partnerships

What is Innovation Procurement?

Innovation procurement can deliver solutions to challenges of public interest, presenting businesses with opportunities through innovative product response. IDDEA procurement expert, Mary Ryan, provides an overview of the Innovation Procurement Brokers Project, offering valuable first-hand insight.

 

Through her involvement in Procurement Transformation Institute (PTI), Mary has had the pleasure of collaborating on the Innovation Procurement Brokers Project. The project aims to facilitate the procurement of goods and services by strengthening links between public buyers on the demand side, and innovative businesses on the supply side. Public buyers are assisted with identifying their needs and are connected with businesses able to develop innovative solutions providing for their requirements. The project provides increased opportunities for businesses, with guidance provided on public authority needs to bid for tenders.

 

The project is EU funded, where five regional schemes are being piloted in Ireland, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Ireland and Andalusia (Spain). The project will finally operate at European level, facilitating the connection of public buyers and suppliers of innovation.

 

Mary explains that “working with such a diverse group of professionals was very rewarding. All participants brought expertise and experience from their own organisations and countries. PTI is a relatively new organisation in Ireland, and through our collaboration in European projects (Innovation Procurement Brokers, Procure 2 Innovate) we can learn so much from our European counterparts.”

 

Innovation Culture and Sustainability: Sourcing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Mary highlights that encouraging an innovation culture is crucial. “It is important for public buyers to look beyond existing frameworks to fit for purpose, innovative goods, that can offer benefits and improvements on what is currently available. Buyers involved in the Innovation Procurement Brokers project, are searching for an innovative solution as a replacement for an existing or new need. In Ireland, a need was identified for sustainable PPE workwear. This encouraged suppliers to think about innovation and provide sustainable solutions.

 

She continues to explain that, while there are many drivers for innovation, sustainability has become a topic of huge interest. “While interest is building in more sustainable products, buyers in the market have not yet driven the need for suppliers to provide more sustainable product solutions. In the private sector, distributors and agents are beginning to look for innovative products from manufacturers to better match sustainability requests from their end users.”

 

In many cases, an alternative solution for PPE products is already available on European markets. Sustainable clothing and equipment are something relatively new, and alternative solutions are being developed and evolving as the demand from the public and private sector is increasing. There are many examples of such innovation procurement solutions. For example, Denmark is looking at sustainable clothing for hospitals and public procurers in Belgium have written a guide for public purchasers to help them to source socially responsible work wear. As momentum grows in the area of circular and sustainable economies, the opportunities for manufacturers and suppliers to supply innovative solutions are growing.

 

Sourcing Sustainable PPE Suppliers

PTI undertook a number of research techniques to determine the best approach to source suppliers for the need identified by Irish buyers of PPE equipment. Mary explains that “we firstly held workshops to establish what the need and requirements were. I then conducted desk research on suppliers of PPE workwear in Ireland and attended supplier trade events.”

 

Mary outlines how the PTI researched recyclable options which can be applied to PPE at the end of its lifecycle. “Participants in the Innovation Procurement Brokers Project are keen to see improved product sustainability and performance. Through their search for a more sustainable solution, the public authority buyers hope to source products that will reduce carbon footprints in logistics and manufacturing. Furthermore, establishing a system which facilitates repair and recycling of products at the end of life and work towards a more sustainable solution. These measures will help to reduce waste and dependence on unsustainable resources.”

She explains that one challenge encountered was that the level of contamination at the end of life of some PPE products may not allow for them to be recycled, “however buyers are keen to understand all of the information available from the market and learn from the proposed solutions.” Mary details how she has encountered industries in the private sector who have shown great interest in recyclable PPE products.

Mary tells us that “the whole area of sustainability and circularity is a fascinating one. I developed a great understanding of these concepts and the challenges manufacturers face when developing a sustainable yet disposable product. My colleague in IDDEA, Rebecca Byrne, is an specialist in this area and her expertise was invaluable when facilitating workshop for public buyers.”

Key Takeaways

  1. Innovation procurement brokerage can provide increased opportunities for businesses to bid for tenders where they have solutions to public needs.
  2. Public authorities benefit from being connected with potential providers in the market and have access to new product innovations.
  3. By offering sustainable solutions to public problems, all stakeholders, including the environment, can experience value and success.

 

How to Learn More?

The Catalogue of Best Practices was published by the Innovation Procurement Brokers. This shows different approaches taken by partners and what was successful for them; very valuable learning for other buyers.

PTI promotes innovative solutions and is working to increase knowledge and skills in Innovation Procurement. PTI aims to improve competitiveness and the innovative mindset of Irish organisations in Europe. Please find more information here.

When ”I” is replaced by ”We”

As the Irish nation re-adjusts to life working at the kitchen table, it can be difficult to switch off after ‘’a day in the office’’.

The IDDEA team are lucky in one sense as we have been developing remote working skills over a period of time and working from home is part of our weekly routine. We have a good balance between visiting clients on site and working remotely. I would love to share our top tips for staying connected during these unprecedented times.

Top Tips:

Stay in contact: Zoom or Teams are great media platforms to connect with your colleagues. Iddea schedule a Team’s call every second day to check in with each other and we never leave without a smile on our face. It is great to connect on non-work-related topics and catch up on all the latest Netflix recommendations. If you are feeling demotivated, pick up the phone and contact one of your colleagues as it can be good to hear a friendly voice and its good to know that you are not alone during this isolation period.

Stay Active: Mary Ryan- IDDEA’s eAuction Coordinator aka our virtual fitness motivator has set up a great initiative to get the team moving. She has set up an online tracker whereby we list our weekly workouts. Whether it is the daily household chores or a 2km walk, everything counts and gets tracked. At the end of every month it is very rewarding to reflect on all the good work that you have done! Yoga is also a great way to start your working day and some Instagram handles that have come highly recommended by the Iddea team: ‘’yogawithmaura’’ and ‘’yogaandval’’ both accounts run free daily yoga classes from the comfort of your own home.

 

Come dine with me: You always have the smart (or lazy) ones who take advantage of a situation to create an opportunity. Working from home has its challenges for working moms so our CEO Ingrid proposed to her family to start a “come dine with me” competition where a rota was agreed that every day, everyone different in the household was going to show off their cooking skills. A balanced scorecard was set up to track the performance and criteria such as taste, texture, innovation and presentation were rated. So every few days, food recipes are being discussed on our zoom call and recipes have been shared. And she is happy to share that her youngest 15-year old daughter is showing amazing flavour combinations and is winning by a mile!

Party-Animals: The “Young ones” of our team have their own challenges with social distancing while keeping their social life active. Every time, the “Old ones” in the team are delighted to hear about what new social media game or virtual party was organised. Bingo Loco, which was Ireland’s, go to night out has now launched via Facebook live. Bingo Loco has the same concept as traditional bingo but with a modern twist. Stay tuned to their Facebook page for updates on their next virtual bingo party https://www.facebook.com/bingolocoie/ 

 

Meet the Fockers: We have been introducing our friends and families to one another via Zoom. In many circumstances we are away from our family during covid 19 therefore, we show photographs of our loved ones whom we miss dearly or family members that live in the household pop on the screen and give a wave. We are so close as a team and it is a nice to connect on both a personal and professional level.

Back to the Future: Making a list of future plans to offset somewhat the current feeling of loneliness, anxiety or the general feeling is a great mood-booster: when the “New Normal” starts, the top 3 things I will do is…..! Sharing the big and small things we look forward is very powerful and triggers a sense of hope, excitement and energy. The negative thoughts of cancelled holidays, festivals, foodie experience, city trips and family occasions, we turn in o future plans. Only the positive “what if” scenarios can be talked about and we all get excited about each other dreams. “The Return of Investment” of sharing each future plans is 2000:1 as that is where our hope and future self lies

Staying connected and staying true to yourself, we empower each other in good and hard times. There are 3 choices in life you can make: give in, give up or give it all you got! Finding a way together to give it all you got, will make you stronger. As they say, tough times never last, tough people do. Finding the “we “ in “I” is what we are trying to do at IDDEA. We hope some of top tips of our remote working experience, might work for you. Be well, stay safe, keep close and mind each other.