Pamplona City Council has developed its Green Public Procurement Manual, a technical and operational document designed to systematically integrate sustainability and circular economy criteria into municipal public procurement.
Sustainn has supported Pamplona City Council throughout this process, whose main objective has been to translate the principles of green procurement into concrete, clear and applicable requirements for real procurement procedures, ensuring legal certainty and proportionality.
A manual focused on practical application
Aligned with Pamplona’s Urban Agenda and Pamplona’s 2030 Energy Transition and Climate Change Strategy, the manual is designed as a support tool for the City Council’s technical and legal staff, enabling them to:
- identify the relevant environmental impacts of each contract,
- select applicable green procurement criteria,
- and define environmental requirements and incorporate them correctly into tender documents, in a verifiable and proportionate manner.
To this end, the manual introduces a principle of proportionality, which adjusts the level of environmental requirements according to the type of contract and its environmental and economic impacts, avoiding rigid or unrealistic approaches.
Training and collaborative work
The development of the manual was accompanied by a capacity-building and collaborative working process, which was essential to translate the contents into practice and adapt them to the reality of municipal procurement. Specifically, the project included:
- 4 training sessions on sustainability, circular economy and green procurement.
- 4 thematic workshops structured around the main areas of procurement —projects, constructions, supplies and services— involving both technical and legal staff from the City Council.
These sessions and workshops made it possible to compare approaches, address practical questions and jointly develop a manual that is useful and aligned with day-to-day procurement practice.
Green procurement templates by contract type
The core of the manual consists of green procurement templates, developed for the main types and subtypes of municipal procurement:
- Projects: new buildings, urban development, major renovation and planning.
- Works: building construction, renovation, urban works and demolition.
- Supplies: food, vehicles, technical components, furniture, equipment and tools, as well as generic templates.
- Services: building management and maintenance, cleaning services, garden maintenance, street cleaning, vehicle leasing and other intermediate-level services.
Each template defines specific environmental requirements, indicating where they should be included in the procurement procedure and how compliance should be verified, thereby facilitating their direct use in the drafting of tender documents.
With this manual, Pamplona City Council now has a structured and operational tool that facilitates the systematic incorporation of sustainability and circular economy criteria into public procurement, translating them into clear, verifiable and legally robust requirements within procurement procedures.
(Note: Photo by David Vives on Unsplash)
