CECE speaks at Big Buyers meeting in Oslo

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Gathering over 40 participants, the market dialogue involved all actors along the value-chain, such as contractors, machinery manufacturers, dealers, technology providers and a wide range of public procurers – mainly large cities – in charge of a combined procurement value of € 14 billion.

The event was opened by the Vice-Mayor of Oslo, who reminded of her administration’s long-term commitment to fully emission-free construction procurement by 2025 and the presence of many emission-free jobsites in the city already nowadays. This is what led the city to be a frontrunner within the dedicated working group for emission-free construction in the Big Buyers Initiative.

Speaking on behalf of the initiative’s Secretariat, Kaitlyn Dietz reminded that the Big Buyers’ main goal is to exchange on pilots and jointly aggregate demand to accelerate the transition to zero-emission construction sites. She added that, by aggregating demand and informing the market, serial production of emission-free solutions can be accelerated, enabling infrastructure will be put in place, and prices will drop. She recognised that procurement practices must change more widely than the group of frontrunners within the Big Buyers initiative, starting from a more widespread use of the better-value-for-money criteria to award tenders.

Taking the floor within the segment dedicated to machine manufacturers, CECE’s Secretary General Riccardo Viaggi thanked the organisers for associating CECE to this effort. He recognised the positive contribution of organised exchanges with procurers – such as those convening in Oslo – as this type of market-driven initiatives give strong signals to manufacturers and greater willingness to keep innovating for sustainability. He stressed the usefulness of these coordinated market initiatives over other unnecessary regulatory pushes.

In this spirit, CECE calls on all stakeholders to focus on enabling actions at local, national and international levels. Indeed, net-zero carbon solutions exist already, but they need to be made scalable with those technology-enabling factors, such as availability of hydrogen or electricity charging infrastructure or predictable pricing structures of alternative energy sources. The easy-to-use option of biofuels should also be kept in mind to decarbonise the existing machinery fleets. In conclusion, Riccardo reminded all participants of the radical difference between decarbonising construction machinery and on-road vehicles, by referring to the CECE 4-pillars approach to decarbonisation.