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Vienna is the capital, and also one of the nine states of Austria. It is by far the largest industrialized city in Austria as well as its cultural, economic and political centre. ÖkoKauf Wien (Vienna Buys Ecologically) is a cross-departmental programme launched in 1998 and attached to the Executive Group for Construction and Technology of the City of Vienna. The programme aims to enhance the environmental compatibility of the city’s procurement system with the principles of climate protection and European Union (EU) procurement regulations. An important factor for the success of the ÖkoKauf Wien programme is its broad structure which involves more than 200 experts from all spheres of the Vienna City Administration as well as a number of external experts. Texts for invitations to tender, criteria catalogues and other guidelines that can be used in the field of procurement are continuously developed. Currently, there are about 100 such product catalogues for supply, construction and other services regularly procured by the City of Vienna. Over the ten years the programme has been running, there have been many reviews, assessments and subsequent adjustments: The use of waste paper for the production of office storage systems and sanitary paper saves resources and significantly reduces the environmental burden of waste water and energy consumption; the production of organic food releases less Carbon-dioxide than products from conventional agriculture; The purchase of organic food in accordance with the criteria of ÖkoKauf Wien, alone enables the City avoid about 20,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year; The change to energy-efficient office and household appliances and lighting technologies such as energy-saving lamps and energy-saving electrical appliances not only saves on energy but also considerably reduces Carbon-dioxide levels. These simple changes in processes contribute significantly to easing the burden on the environment. ÖkoKauf Wien targets the procurement practices of the city government as well as the consumption preferences and practices of city residents. The enquiries received show that other public procurers as well as large industrial enterprises and individual private households in other European cities are also interested in the results. The European Union has tasked its Member States to prepare National Action Plans on Sustainable Procurement. With the substantial collaboration of ÖkoKauf Wien”, the Action Plan for Austria, which is available in draft form, was prepared within a relatively short period of time and contains primarily the results of the ÖkoKauf Wien programme for the ten priority issues defined by the EU. Since its implementation, the ÖkoKauf Wien programme saves an annual amount of approx. 17 million euro of a total procurement volume of 5 billion euros in the city of Vienna. Another calculable parameter is the reduction of about 30,000 tons of Carbon-dioxide per year. These savings reduce the burden on the public budget and on the climate and hence ÖkoKauf Wien can be called a sustainable policy and strategy.

Magistratsdirektion der Stadt Wien
Rathaus Vienna A-1082 Austria
Christian-lang@wien.gv.at | georg.patak@wien.gv.at
+43 1 4000 82647