The project aims to support municipal staff in procuring sustainable products and services. To this end, tools will be developed specifically tailored to the needs of procurement personnel in small municipalities. Additionally, the project seeks to address a gap in vocational education by creating and providing practical teaching materials on sustainable procurement.

The project "We procure that!" developed measures with which contracting authorities can provide an incentive for their suppliers to increasingly deliver goods and services using low-emission delivery systems.

One aspect of the reliability of contractors has so far been given too little consideration in (public) tenders: the ability of the contractor to provide the service even in during a crisis or disaster. In the course of the project Providentia, a catalog of measures is being developed for (public) contracting authorities with which they can ensure security of supply even in the event of crises and disasters.

The naBe-Servicepoint was the main information platform for the Austrian Action Plan for Sustainable Public Procurement and the procurement of sustainable products, services and works.

Regarding climate protection and energy supply, 2020 is an important year for the EU. By then, ambitious goals should be reached, amongst others, a 20% increase of energy efficiency as well as a 20% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (reference year: 2005). The GPP 2020 project followed up on these goals and directed its attention to the potential contribution of green public procurement. With its demand, EU's public sector can trigger a leverage effect in favour of energy-efficient and low-carbon goods and services.

Every year public authorities in Austria spend around 35 billion Euro for products and services. If this amount would be spent on product and services that foster sustainable development, public authorities could not only contribute actively to a more intact environment, better working conditions and the reduction of poverty (also to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), but also could state an example for companies and consumers.
 

Climate reseach and research funding support society to cope with the uprecedented challenges of climate change. Paradoxically, the research and research funding sector has even developed a CO₂-intensive and thus climate-damaging work style – fueled by rising expectations of international cooperation, cheap flights, and use of recourse-intensive infrastructure.

Climate change and reduced availability of non-renewable resources will require a massive reconstruction of our energy supply and economic system and beyond that will affect our everyday life and leisure behaviour. Tourism as the worldwide biggest service industry will not be able to decouple itself from such a development, since it is both a contributor and a victim of climate and societal change.

Saving costs and energy with energy efficient devices: the klima-aktiv programm supports companies and public institutions.

The IFZ was commissioned by Plochberger & Partner OEG to carry out a ecobalance for two doof cavity covering systems.

In the run-up of a National Action Plan for Sustainable Public Procurement, the IFZ conducts a survey of the current state of affairs.

It is the object of the study to investigate topics concerning the application of meat alternatives based on Soja into the canteen kitchen menu of hospitals.

The research project "PSS-ÖB – Strategies to deal with barriers to the implementation of ecoefficient Product-Service-Systems in Public Procurement" will:

• determine the current status of the implementation of PSS in public procurement;
• identify factors that support or hinder the establishment of PSS in public procurement;
• and develop strategies and recommendations to overcome these barriers.

In the project IFZ is partner of ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiative which coordinates DEEP. The project aims to assist public procurers in improving energy efficiency through high environmental standards of public buildings.

The project is compiling a proposal of the “green” procurement criteria for all purpose cleaners and sanitary cleaner, hand dishwashing detergents, laundry detergents and dishwasher detergents. This is mainly done on the basis of common eco-labelling criteria.

An evaluation of the years 2002 and 2003 proved that municipalities which used this service could save working time and money while purchasing environmentally preferable products.

The goal of the project is to develop a concept for implementing industrial sustainability networks, taking value chain and recycling-oriented networks as starting points.

The aim of the project is to exemplarily provide one Austrian enterprise with a practical guidance on how to integrate the social dimension of sustainability into their strategic as well as operational management.

Within the project practicable and easy to implement measures of climate and environmentally friendly procurement have been identified within a series of workshops in cooperation with 6 municipalities of the province of Lower Austria.

For selected resources-intensive need fields in the economic sector the actual function and the use of the products were analysed, in order to find possible alternatives for delivering the actual service and/or the functions correlated with a material product.

Within the project current practices of green purchasing have been assessed and the most relevant product groups for environmental relief identified.

Cosmetic ingredients are used in different types of products, for instance in chemicals, cleaning products or pharmaceuticals. These product types are subject to different regulations and testing requirements. The goal of this project was to examine the European Cosmetic Regulation in the context of a comprehensive risk management.

As part of the Vorarlberg environmental association for the greening of procurement in the Vorarlberg municipalities, the information center Procurement Service Austria at the IFF / IFZ was invited to provide content and organizational support.