Responsible and impactful procurement

Procurement makes up nearly half of our turnover. Every year, we make purchases worth around €45 million.

Our aim is to operate and provide services in a sustainable way, respecting the environment and the wellbeing of society.  We are committed to the City of Helsinki’s environmental and sustainability goals, as well as to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Our commitment guides our procurement contracts and our cooperation with our contracted suppliers.

Economic, social and environmental responsibility are part of our day-to-day work and the continuous improvement of our operations and services.

Our suppliers must ensure through their own contracts that the requirements of this code of conduct are implemented both in the suppliers’ own operations and throughout their supply chains. As the client, we have a right to request a written report from the supplier on the implementation of the requirements based on this code of conduct. This report must be submitted without undue delay.  

A person standing in a loft, looking down, with a laptop on her lap.
Photo: Silja Minkkinen / Helsinki Partners

Procurements attract interest (in Finnish)

Tarinoita hyvistä hankinnoista 2024
Tarinoita hyvistä hankinnoista 2024 - julkaisu valtiovarainministeriön sivuilla (pdf-julkasu)
Kohti vastuullisia tekstiilihankintoja
Kohti vastuullisia tekstiilihankintoja - julkaisu Reilun Kaupan sivuilla (pdf)
Canemure Case: Omistus- ja vuokratyövaatteet pesulapalveluineen
Canemure Case: Omistus- ja vuokratyövaatteet pesulapalveluineen - julkaisu Ilmastoteot-sivuilla (pdf)
Assessment of reuse in public procurement
Assessment of reuse in public procurement - julkaisu englanniksi Katalonian hallituksen sivuilla (pdf)
Näkökulmia kierrätysmateriaalin hyödyntämisestä julkisissa hyvinvointialan tekstiilihankinnoissa
Näkökulmia kierrätysmateriaalin hyödyntämisestä julkisissa hyvinvointialan tekstiilihankinnoissa - Turun ammattikorkeakoulun julkaisu (pdf)
Sustainable Public Procurement 2022 Global Review (Parts I and II)
Sustainable Public Procurement: 2022 Global Review (Parts I and II) - julkaisu One Planet Networkin sivuilla (pdf)

Developing responsible procurement

Palvelukeskus Helsinki has been developing responsible procurement for several years. This timeline presents our main achievements and milestones in this area. 

  • 2025

  • 2024

    • A functioning market
      • In 2024, we developed the Procurement Barometer to be more usable by category and conducted a feedback survey with the tenderers who participated in the call for tenders.
    • Economic sustainability
      • We developed our predefinition form of procurements to match the objective of the procurement and increased cooperation with the market.
    • Knowledge management
      • We developed a procurement risk analysis, which was included in the predefinition process. We also developed a method for monitoring the preparation of the procurement process and the procurement work desk. 

  • 2023

    • We included regular sustainability reviews as an integral part of our procurement and contract monitoring.
    • In 2023, 16 sustainability audits were carried out with contracted suppliers. These audits monitored compliance with the sustainability criteria in the procurement in question and required additional reports to be provided where necessary.
    • We classified our procurements into strategic, volume, bottleneck and routine procurements.
    • Based on this classification, the monitoring of a procurement’s responsibility criteria is being arranged by type. This grouping is based on the economic effectiveness of the procurement, as well as the manageability of the supplier market and the resulting risks in security of supply. 

  • 2022

    • The workwear procurement project of Palvelukeskus Helsinki was selected as a semi-finalist in the PROCURA+ competition.
    • We carried out a study on the effectiveness of Palvelukeskus Helsinki's procurement. The study applied a scoring method to examine the effectiveness of prior procurements.
    • We published our Procurement Barometer for the first time.
    • The Procurements and tendering team reviewed the opinions of economic operators on the procurement activities of Palvelukeskus Helsinki by developing a procurement barometer. Each year, the Barometer measures the success of our tenders from the perspective of the suppliers who have viewed and participated in the tenders and who have been selected as contracted suppliers. Based on the responses to the Procurement Barometer, we are developing and steering our procurement activities in the right direction. The questions in the Procurement Barometer support the strategic themes and objectives of Palvelukeskus Helsinki's procurement strategy. 

  • 2021

    • We compiled the strategic themes for Palvelukeskus Helsinki’s procurements.
    • These procurement strategy themes are based on both the national procurement strategy and the procurement strategy of the City of Helsinki. Our strategic procurement themes are: effectiveness, responsibility, functioning markets, financial sustainability and knowledge management. These strategic themes are boosted with 14 concrete goals with defined measures and indicators.
    • We published Palvelukeskus Helsinki’s own Code of Conduct. 

  • 2020

    • We published a form for predefining responsibility.
    • We use this predefinition form to ensure that the procurement being prepared will take into account not only the specific characteristics of the procurement, but also its sustainability aspects. We apply this tool to systematically assess the implementation of environmental, social and economic responsibility in our procurements. In addition to sustainability, we assess the innovativeness of procurement and the factors that are relevant to contracts. The definition work always involves at least the specialists who are familiar with the object of the procurement, Palvelukeskus Helsinki's sustainability specialists and procurement specialists.
    • Milk and meat acquisitions were included in the Canemure sub-project.
    • When preparing procurements, we identified and developed procurement criteria that reduce climate and environmental impacts. In terms of procurement preparations, we also explored the possibilities of applying carbon footprint calculations in tendering and during the contract period. 

  • 2019

    • We launched a criteria bank for responsible procurement.
    • We apply a comprehensive sustainability criteria bank to our procurements. The criteria bank contains a collection of procurement criteria that promote environmental, social and economic sustainability alike. We update the criteria bank whenever new criteria are introduced.
    • Food delivery services nominated as a finalist for the Vuoden taidokkain hankinta award for the most skilfully implemented procurement of the year.
    • A comprehensive food delivery service tendered by Helsinki reached the finale of the Vuoden taidokkain hankinta competition. The competition is organised by the Public Procurement Advisory Unit of the Association of Finnish Cities and Municipalities. The food service logistics tendered in 2018, which included e.g. the home delivery of meals, delivery of daycare and school meals and meal deliveries between different business locations, received praise for reducing its environmental and cost impacts, in particular.