Ympäristö OK – Sustainable Software Criteria for ICT Procurement

To correct the situation, it is essential that procurement organizations receive tools to consider environmental impacts in software procurement. At the same time, it is important for software companies to know how to take these impacts into account in the software solutions they develop.

The Ympäristö OK project addresses this need by providing concrete solutions and support to both procurers and developers.

The goal of the Ympäristö OK project is to reduce the negative environmental impacts of the software industry by developing and implementing environmentally friendly software procurement criteria. The main objective of the project is to ensure the adoption of these criteria in both public and private software procurement.

This goal is pursued by updating the software procurement criteria developed in the previous MitViDi project, found in Motiva’s criteria bank, and expanding them to cover new areas such as artificial intelligence, data-intensive systems, and positive handprint impacts. The result will be a comprehensive and practical set of criteria that supports environmentally responsible software procurement in Finland in both the public and private sectors. All development work in this project is done in close cooperation with software companies and procurement experts.

The project supports organizations by offering training, webinars, self-study materials, and practical guidance. With these, more and more organizations can utilize the criteria in their own procurements.

The project promotes energy efficiency and environmental consideration in software procurement and development. The measures target both private and public sector software procurements, particularly in the regions of Southwest Finland, Päijät-Häme, Kanta-Häme, and South Karelia.

The primary target group of the project are companies that develop and offer software and want to respond to their customers’ growing environmental requirements. The project particularly benefits companies that are just starting on the path of sustainable software development and want to develop competitive but more environmentally friendly solutions.

Additionally, the project supports organizations that procure software – such as municipalities, state authorities, and private sector actors – where considering environmental impacts is a key part of decision-making.

The Ympäristö OK project is implemented as a joint project coordinated by the University of Turku, with Turku University of Applied Sciences, LUT University, and TIEKE involved. The project is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The funding has been granted through the Regional Councils of Päijät-Häme, Southwest Finland, Häme, and South Karelia.

We are looking for enthusiastic organizational and business partners who want to be part of this impactful initiative. If you are interested, book a discussion time with TIEKE’s Green ICT project manager Antti Sipilä, who serves as the point of contact for this project.

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