As a central procurement resource in the UN, UNOPS is committed to progressively making sustainable procurement its default mode of procurement. To accomplish this, the organization has developed an extensive range of tailored sustainable procurement training options that target procurement practitioners, policy makers, project managers, requisitioners and other procurement professionals within the UN system.

The latest workshops, held at UNOPS headquarters in Copenhagen in September and November 2014, attracted a total of 40 procurement professionals from 14 countries, including Denmark, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, South Sudan, Tajikistan and Zambia. Participants included personnel from UNOPS, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and United Nations Volunteers.

The two-day workshops included best practices for embedding sustainability into procurement processes through presentations, real-life case studies and practical participatory activities.

"The workshop was concrete, with many practical examples and very useful advice on how to integrate sustainable procurement principles into procurement processes," stated one participant from UNDP, Snezana Doljanica, adding that: "It provided an excellent base to start implementing sustainable procurement into our everyday work."