EcoProcura 1998 Hannover

Europe's first eco-procurement forum for local authorities gathered some 180 congress participants from 17 countries, representing decision-makers and purchasers from both the private and the public sector. Speakers from the European Commission, the OECD and the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) outlined their strategic approaches. Some 25 companies, exhibiting products from core procurement sectors, participated at in the EcoProcura exhibition.

The EcoProcura product exhibition, adjacent to the congress plenary, featured products from a variety of sectors, mainly the Green Office, Green Building and Green Cleaning sectors. In addition to 22 companies presenting their eco-products, four public institutions informed about their eco-labelling schemes:

• the Council for the Nordic Eco-Label (White Swan)
• the German Federal Environmental Agency (Blue Angel)
• the Austrian Ministry for the Environment (Austrian Eco-Label)
• the German TÜV (presenting two environmental certificates).

As a thematic link between the conference and the exhibition, an EcoProduct Forum helped purchasers to grasp the idea of an eco-product (i.e. one that is both economically and ecologically reasonable). This forum attracted 13 companies, among them several exhibitors as well as some non-exhibitors. One of the forum’s highlights was the launch of Cherry’s ecologically optimised computer keyboard.