Austrian wastewater system wins procurement award

This year’s prize for the most innovative procurement in Europe was awarded to the Federal Procurement Agency Austria at the Public Procurement of Innovation award ceremony in Paris.

The procurement of a machine that recycles wastewater by vaporising it to remove waste particles was chosen as it not only involved the application of innovation-friendly procurement procedures, it also ensured increased resource efficiency, improving environmental sustainability.

“We felt that the procurement of the vaporising system best showcased the impressive work being carried out, as well as the type of solution that public procurement of innovation can achieve,” said Wouter Stolwijk, Director of PIANOo, the Dutch Public Procurement Expertise Centre, who presented the award to a delegation from the Federal Procurement Agency Austria. “The procurement brought together the institutional knowledge of public procurers with the ingenuity of the private sector.”

The innovative solution ‘Vacuum vaporiser based wastewater recycling system for the Austrian Mint‘ is used by the mint to clean water contaminated during the production of coins and notes. The new system reduces the need for fresh water by 97 percent. The solution can be used to filter a wide range of particles such as metal, galvanic, photo, print, pharmaceutical, and food making it suitable for use in a variety of industries.

To procure the machine, the Federal Procurement Agency Austria applied a negotiated procedure split into three phases. In the first phase suppliers were invited to provide information on their qualifications as a company. In the second phase the supplier submitted their first offer, which included detailed information on wastewater consumption and the environmental savings of the proposed system. Based on the results of the study suppliers were invited to submit their final offer.

“The quality of each of the finalists meant that choosing the overall winner was very difficult. It was an exceptionally close competition,” said Mark Hidson, Deputy Regional Director at ICLEI Europe and jury member, who also stressed the importance of the competition itself. “The Procurement of Innovation Award is not only an important means to recognise those who are modernising the public sector in Europe, it is a way to showcase the benefits that engaging in PPI can bring to public authorities.”

Now in its second year, the Public Procurement of Innovation Award aims to recognise successful public procurement practices that have been used to purchase innovative, more effective and efficient products or services. The award is part of the Procurement of Innovation Platform, an online space for procurers coordinated by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and developed with support from the European Commission, in partnership with PIANOo , REC, the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe and IWT, the Flemish Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology.