On 18 May, ISSO held a workshop to explore whether the NZEB-clause, a French tool, could be used in the Dutch situation to include energy craftsmanship requirements in public tenders. First, the NZEB-clause was presented and also its relationship to the broader theme of Green Public Procurement. This was followed by a broad discussion with the participants and a summary of the results.
The main results were:
- The NZEB-clause is a good and useful tool to demand craftsmanship on the construction site and from all parties involved.
- However, for the clause to be widely used, a number of preconditions must be met, such as support for and unburdening of the contracting authority and creating awareness among the contracting authorities.
- A threat to the successful use of the clause in Dutch situation is the pressure on the purchasing departments of the contracting authorities to work as efficiently as possible. As a result, little attention can be paid to substantive aspects.
The workshop also discussed another way of increasing attention to craftsmanship, namely by placing relevant themes that require knowledge of each other’s work on the agenda of the periodic construction meeting at the construction site.
In the Netherlands, the workshop will be followed up with a pilot for the use of the NZEB-clause and a compilation of the situations for which the use of the NZEB-clause has added value.
Similar workshops will be held in the other partner countries within BUSLeague. In the near future the results will be compared, and a best practice guide produced on how craftsmanship can be demanded in tenders from public organisations.