The City of Cape Town has drafted a Green Procurement Action Plan with the aim of supporting and sustaining green industries and solutions in the city. The plan, which will appear before council for deliberation in 2018, will include the setting of targets for green procurement in various sectors.

“Government, including municipalities, has enormous purchasing power. By leveraging our spending power, we can do a lot to encourage suppliers and service providers to use environmentally responsible production solutions in their day-to-day business,” says Johan van der Merwe, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Finance.

The City recently also adopted a Climate Change Policy, which states that it will “consider the life-cycle cost of goods and services in City supply chain management processes, thereby promoting the use of climate-appropriate resources, technologies and approaches and stimulating the market for these products and services, with a focus on local supply where available”.

Cape Town was a founding participant of the Global Lead City Network on Sustainable Procurement and recently presented its plans at the GLCN on SP High Level Event at COP 23.