The first Stakeholder Cafè, within the framework of the EU Funded Project XPRESS, took place physically in Rome on October 6th, 2021. XPRESS, an Horizon2020 project, aims to introduce renewable energy sources (RES) in cities and municipalities starting in the UK, Italy, Norway, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Slovakia, Portugal and Belgium and in all European countries. A key feature of the introduction of RES technologies in these cities and regions is through Green Public Procurement (GPP), and the project focuses on enhancing the collaboration between local governments and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), analysing the barriers of GPP from both sides and gathering together different stakeholders (SMEs, PAs, financial institutions, civil society) with the ultimate goal of increasing the share of renewable energy solutions in final energy consumption.
During the event, the Italian partners of XPRESS project met to share the main findings of XPRESS Initial Analysis of the barriers to investments in innovative RES, and to collect some successful examples of GPP in the Italian energy sector, from an SME, a financial institution and public authorities, such as Basilicata Region, which included a “minimal environmental” criteria for different phases of their procurement processes, requiring elements to prove technical capacity to cause the minimum possible damage to the environment, and of the introduction of requirements aimed at selecting products and services with better environmental performance.
Moreover, on October 7th, Giovanni Zazzerini, INSME Secretary General, attended the event “ENEA at SAIE Bari 2021: energy requalification and sustainable materials” to present the XPRESS project, together with the main research findings and key points emerged during the previous day. The event took place in Bari and was focused on energy requalification and efficient design through sustainable materials. The main Italian stakeholders from the sector, such as associations, institutions, companies and universities attended the summit. If you would like to know more about XPRESS Project and upcoming activities, you can visit the website here.
