Tendering for province office furnishing
- Province of Utrecht
The province of Utrecht has set itself the target of spending at least 10% of its total influenceable purchasing budget circularly by 2020! After a circular tender for ICT hardware, it is now the turn of the provincial house in Utrecht. They asked PHI to support them with this.
- Assignment:
In 2012, the Province of Utrecht moved into a new building, the former Fortis building on the Rijsweerd office park in Utrecht. With the relocation of the province, her entire office furnishing was newly purchased. It is expected that the current inventory will increase in size in the coming years. In addition, at the beginning of 2017 the province signed the National Commodities Agreement, which aims to reduce the use of primary raw materials in the Netherlands by 50% by 2030 and to have a 100% circular economy by 2050. The Province also committed itself to using the procurement instrument to accelerate the circular economy, with the target of 10% circular procurement by 2020 and a 100% transition to a circular economy by 2050. The tender Circular Maintenance and Circular Complement Office Furniture anticipates this goal and is the province’s first large-scale project aimed at high-quality reuse of products and materials. In the previous year, the province already piloted with circular ICT hardware.
- The PHI approach:
PHI was asked to support the tender team in formulating the project ambitions, tender strategy and questions. The province had already formulated a vision for circular procurement. The province wants to keep its existing office furniture in functioning and representative condition for as long as possible. The depreciation period, currently eight years, no longer determines the lifespan of the material. High quality therefore means that the value of the furniture and components for the province and the entire production chain will remain as high as possible for as long as possible, with the right balance between quality, functionality and price. Based on the available information (vision circular procurement and the organization strategy), we drew up the vision and ambitions for the tender.
- The result:
The ambitions have been designed in a poster, as well as a request for a market consultation. In June 2018, the province carried out a market survey among interested manufacturers and suppliers of office furniture and office furnishings. The purpose of the survey was to investigate what the office furnishing market has to offer in terms of circular products and services, now and in the future. The results are now being processed in the tender dossier.
