ISCC is pleased to share with you the  EU Excellence in India programme, which is an activity under the Business Support to the EU-India Policy Dialogues Project  (funded by the European Union) is organizing a workshop on ‘Valuing Sustainability in Public Procurement’ with the SDG Tender Committee of NITI Aayog and the Task Force on Sustainable Public Procurement of the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance in April 2021 (subject to convenient timeslots of all stakeholders). We would like to invite you (if you deem apt to be added to the club of ‘EU Green Business Champions’) to express interest in participating in this workshop. You can sign up for the workshop here:  Expression of Interest  and confirm the same to me at events@indispanishcc.org  latest by March 9, 2021 EOD. Please find attached a briefing document which provides further context on the proposed procurement workshop. About the workshop (more details enclosed):

• This workshop will bring together the aforementioned Indian governmental stakeholders together with the EU Business Champions highlighted above, the Resource Efficiency Initiative (REI) and business support organizations, such as yourselves, to present best practices and case studies on ‘Green Public Procurement’ undertaken by their organization and/or prevalent in their EU member state and EFTA country.

• Such case studies and presentations from businesses can provide Indian government interlocutors with concrete examples wherein alternate procurement criteria, such as a Life Cycle Costing or a NPV approach, as opposed to the ‘least-cost’ (L1) approach, can significantly reduce the overall costs over the life of the project, while also meeting the sustainability goals of public institutions. Select Indian corporates may also be invited to share their perspectives on such sustainable public procurement models.

• Similarly, best practices on ‘Green Public Procurement’ from EU member states and EFTA country chambers and diplomatic missions can also be presented to Indian stakeholders in order to define how such procurement models can be effectively adapted/implemented in India.

About the EU Excellence (more details enclosed):

• This programme is not fee-based and brings together European green business champions in India which have placed sustainability at the very heart of their business operations.
• Under this programme, EU business champions in India are provided opportunity, co-operation and visibility support to further enhance their potential, collaboration and presence in the field of sustainability in India. So far, 18 European businesses have already signed the Expression of Interest (EOI) to participate in this programme. Please find attached a brief overview of the programme including the list of these companies.