Stockholm's School Building Agency Ran a €1.8 Million Tender With 13 Bidders And Awarded It to No One

Standfirst:

Skolfastigheter i Stockholm (SISAB), the company that owns and maintains Stockholm's school buildings, closed a tender for environmental consultancy services worth an estimated SEK 20 million without selecting a winner, despite drawing bids from 13 of Sweden's best-known engineering and environmental consultancies. The outcome is a reminder that even well-contested public tenders sometimes end without an award.

Every school renovation and new school building in Stockholm has to clear a set of environmental checks before construction can begin: hazardous materials need to be catalogued, climate impact calculated, and environmental coordination managed across the life of the project. SISAB, the municipally owned company responsible for Stockholm's school properties, went looking for consultants to do exactly that work. Thirteen firms answered the call. None of them got the job.

Why This Contract Matters

This tender covered three closely related specialisms: environmental coordinators, who manage compliance across a construction project; environmental inventory specialists, who catalogue hazardous materials such as asbestos or PCBs before renovation work begins; and climate calculation specialists, who assess a building project's carbon footprint. All three roles are now standard requirements on Swedish public construction projects, particularly renovation work, known locally as ROT, on ageing school buildings.

The fact that this tender closed without an award, despite genuine and substantial competition, is the real story here. Public buyers rarely publicize the mechanics of a failed tender in detail, but the scale of interest , 13 tenders for a two-year, SEK 20 million framework - shows real appetite in the Swedish environmental consultancy market for this kind of recurring public-sector work.

Contract Timeline

• 21 April 2026 - Planned start date for the framework, as specified in the tender.
• 20 April 2028 - Planned end date for the framework's two-year term.
• 8 July 2026 - The result notice, confirming no award, was dispatched to the EU Publications Office.
• 10 July 2026 - The notice was published in OJ S issue 131/2026.

Contract Overview

SISAB ran an open procedure under the EU's general procurement directive, seeking a framework agreement without reopening of competition for environmental coordination, environmental inventory and climate calculation consultancy services. The estimated value was SEK 20 million over a planned two-year term, from April 2026 to April 2028. Thirteen tenders were received.

Despite that field of bidders, SISAB's result notice records that no winner was chosen and the competition was closed. The reason given in the notice is simply "Other," with no further detail disclosed. Every one of the 13 tenders received is listed in the notice as a non-winning tenderer, meaning the entire competitive field went unrewarded.

Key Contract Details

• Contracting authority: Skolfastigheter i Stockholm Aktiebolag (SISAB)
• Contract title: Miljösamordnare, miljöinventerare och klimatberäkningsspecialist (Environmental coordinators, environmental inventory specialists and climate calculation specialists)
• Internal reference: SISAB 2025/433
• CPV classification: 71313000 - Environmental engineering consultancy services
• Procedure type: Open procedure, non-accelerated
• Legal basis: Directive 2014/24/EU
• Framework type: Framework agreement without reopening of competition (as specified, though ultimately unawarded)
• Estimated value: SEK 20,000,000 (excluding VAT)
• Planned duration: 21 April 2026 to 20 April 2028 (two years)
• Award criteria: Quality-based evaluation
• Number of tenders received: 13
• Winner selection status: No winner chosen; competition closed
• Reason for non-award: "Other" (not further specified in the notice)
• GPA coverage: Yes
• EU funding: Not financed with EU funds
• Strategic procurement objective: None declared
• Place of performance: Stockholm County, Sweden

Project Scope

The intended scope covered consultancy support across every stage of production and design, for both new-build school construction and ROT projects , the Swedish term covering renovation, conversion and extension work on existing buildings. Environmental coordinators would have managed compliance requirements throughout a project's life; environmental inventory specialists would have surveyed buildings for hazardous materials ahead of renovation; and climate calculation specialists would have quantified the carbon impact of construction choices, an increasingly standard requirement on Swedish public building projects.

Because no award was made, none of this scope has yet been contracted out. SISAB's underlying need for these services presumably remains, given the estimated SEK 20 million value originally attached to the framework.

About the Contracting Authority

Skolfastigheter i Stockholm Aktiebolag, known as SISAB, is the company owned by the City of Stockholm responsible for owning, building and maintaining the city's school properties. Classified in the notice as a regional authority, SISAB ran this tender directly and remains the point of contact for enquiries about the procurement and any future re-tender.

About the Organisations Involved

Skolfastigheter i Stockholm Aktiebolag (SISAB) , Buyer

SISAB designed and ran the tender, evaluated the 13 submissions received, and ultimately closed the competition without selecting a winner. It is named in the notice as the organisation providing further information about the procurement procedure, and remains the party best placed to explain what happens next, including whether and when the requirement will be re-tendered.

The Thirteen Tenderers

All 13 organisations that submitted tenders are named in the notice as non-winning tenderers, since no award was made to any of them. The field included several of Sweden's largest engineering and environmental consultancies alongside smaller specialist firms:

• Hifab AB (Stockholm)
• Tyréns Sverige AB (Stockholm)
• Sweco Sverige AB (Mölnlycke)
• WSP Sverige AB (Stockholm)
• AFRY Infrastructure AB (Stockholm)
• Frank Projektpartner AB (Stockholm)
• Ramboll Sweden AB (Stockholm)
• Hedström & Taube Miljö AB (Stockholm)
• White arkitekter Aktiebolag (Gothenburg)
• Sustera Green Building AB (formerly Raksystems Dry-IT; Stockholm)
• Ebab Eko Optima AB (Johanneshov)
• Bengt Dahlgren Stockholm Aktiebolag (Stockholm)
• Polygon Sverige AB (Solna)

The notice does not disclose individual tender scores, rankings, or the specific reasons any particular bid fell short. Subcontracting status for each tenderer is recorded as "not yet known" across the board.

Procurement Analysis

SISAB used an open procedure, allowing any qualified consultancy to bid without a pre-qualification stage , a standard approach for professional services contracts of this kind. The intended framework structure, without reopening of competition, would have given SISAB a fixed roster of pre-agreed suppliers to call on directly, without further mini-competitions, had an award been made.

The critical fact here is the non-award itself. Thirteen tenders is a strong response for a professional services contract of this size, and the field included nationally significant firms such as Sweco, WSP, Ramboll, AFRY and Tyréns , companies that routinely win large Swedish public infrastructure and construction contracts. That level of interest makes the "no winner selected" outcome more striking, since it was not for lack of competition.

The notice attributes the non-award to "Other," a catch-all category in EU procurement reporting that does not specify whether the tender was cancelled due to budget constraints, a decision to revise the specification, a legal challenge, or some other administrative reason. The contracting authority has not disclosed further detail on why none of the 13 bids were accepted.

Additional Procurement Facts

• The competition is formally closed with no winner selected; the notice does not indicate whether or when a new tender will be launched.
• Any legal challenge relating to this procurement would be heard by Förvaltningsrätten i Stockholm (the Administrative Court of Stockholm), which is also named as the source of further information on review procedures.
• The procurement is confirmed as GPA-covered, despite the lack of an award.
• No EU funds were attached to this procurement.
• No strategic procurement objectives, such as sustainability or social value criteria, were declared for this tender.

Market & Industry Perspective

The scale and quality of the bidder field says something important about the Swedish environmental consultancy market: this is a competitive, well-populated sector where both large multidisciplinary engineering groups and smaller specialist environmental firms actively pursue public-sector framework work. Firms like Sweco, WSP, Ramboll and AFRY operate across the Nordic region and beyond, and their willingness to compete for a relatively modest SEK 20 million framework indicates how valuable stable, recurring public-sector consultancy work has become in a market where private construction demand can be more volatile.

For smaller, more specialised firms in the field, such as Hedström & Taube Miljö or Ebab Eko Optima, competing directly against the largest engineering groups for the same contract reflects a market where scale advantages don't always guarantee success, and where specialist environmental expertise can compete credibly against much larger diversified consultancies.

Economic Significance

At an estimated SEK 20 million over two years, this framework was a moderate but meaningful contract opportunity, particularly for Stockholm's school construction programme, which depends on properly managed environmental compliance and hazardous material surveys ahead of any renovation work. The non-award means this budgeted spending has not yet translated into an actual supplier relationship, leaving SISAB's environmental consultancy needs unmet through the original tender route.

For the 13 firms that bid and lost, the immediate financial impact is limited to the sunk cost of tender preparation, a cost borne by consultancies regularly across the public procurement market, but one that stings more when, as here, no supplier at all is rewarded for the effort of competing.

Future Procurement Opportunities

SISAB's underlying need for environmental coordination, hazardous material inventory and climate calculation services has not disappeared simply because this tender failed to produce a winner. A re-tender, potentially with a revised specification or evaluation approach, is a plausible next step, though the notice gives no indication of timing.

Firms that bid this time should watch for a follow-up notice from SISAB, and more broadly, other Swedish municipal school property companies facing similar renovation and new-build programmes are likely to bring comparable environmental consultancy tenders to market in the coming years, given the sector-wide push toward better-documented environmental compliance in public construction.

Opportunities for Suppliers

• All 13 firms that bid this time should stay alert for a re-tender notice from SISAB, since their prior submissions demonstrate established interest and qualification for this type of work.
• Consultancies not involved in this round should track SISAB's procurement notices closely, given the clear appetite in the market and the likelihood of a future re-tender.
• Firms specialising in hazardous material surveys and climate calculation should monitor other Swedish municipal property companies for similar environmental consultancy frameworks, since the underlying regulatory drivers are consistent nationwide.
• Suppliers should consider requesting a debrief from SISAB where permitted under Swedish procurement rules, to better understand the "Other" justification behind the non-award before any re-tender is issued.

What Businesses Should Watch

Watch for any announcement from SISAB about a revised or relaunched tender for these environmental consultancy roles, since the underlying need for the work remains. Watch also whether other Stockholm-area public bodies report similar non-award outcomes on comparable environmental consultancy tenders, which would suggest a broader pattern rather than an isolated case specific to this contract.

SwedenTenders.com Procurement Intelligence

This notice is a useful reminder that competitive interest alone does not guarantee an award. Thirteen tenders, including bids from some of Sweden's most established engineering and environmental consultancies, were not enough to produce a winner here, and the notice's vague "Other" justification leaves the real reason undisclosed. For a market intelligence audience, that opacity is itself informative: not every failed tender stems from a lack of qualified suppliers, and buyers can and do walk away from well-contested competitions for reasons they choose not to detail publicly.

For suppliers, the lesson is to treat a strong competitive field as necessary but not sufficient for winning public work. Where a tender closes without an award, following up for a debrief, and watching closely for a re-tender, is likely to be more productive than assuming the opportunity has simply disappeared. The scale of interest this tender attracted strongly suggests SISAB will need to return to the market for these services before long.

Expect Swedish municipal property companies to continue treating environmental coordination and climate calculation consultancy as standard, recurring procurement needs, even as individual tenders like this one occasionally fail to produce a result on the first attempt.

Supplier Takeaways

• Stay alert for a SISAB re-tender covering the same environmental consultancy scope, given the clear underlying need and strong market interest.
• Request a debrief where possible to better understand the "Other" non-award justification before preparing for any future round.
• Track other Swedish municipal school property companies for comparable environmental consultancy opportunities.
• Maintain qualification and pricing readiness, since a re-tender could emerge with limited notice given the volume of existing renovation and new-build demand.

Key Takeaways

• SISAB's tender for environmental coordination, inventory and climate calculation consultancy, estimated at SEK 20 million, closed with no winner selected.
• Thirteen tenders were received, including bids from major firms such as Sweco, WSP, Ramboll, AFRY and Tyréns.
• The notice attributes the non-award to "Other," without further explanation.
• The contract was intended to run for two years, from April 2026 to April 2028.
• Any legal challenge would be handled by Förvaltningsrätten i Stockholm.

Conclusion

A well-contested tender that ends without a winner rarely makes headlines, but it tells its own story about the mechanics of public procurement. Thirteen credible bidders competed for SISAB's environmental consultancy framework, and the contracting authority chose to award the contract to none of them. For Stockholm's school construction programme, the underlying need for this work has not gone away, and for the market of Swedish environmental consultancies that competed here, the more relevant question now is not who won, but when SISAB returns to the market to try again.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who ran this tender?
Skolfastigheter i Stockholm Aktiebolag (SISAB), the company that owns and manages Stockholm's school properties.

Who won the contract?
No winner was selected. The competition was closed without an award.

Why was no winner chosen?
The notice states the reason as "Other" without further explanation. The contracting authority has not disclosed additional detail.

How many companies bid for this contract?
Thirteen tenders were received.

What was the contract worth?
The estimated value was SEK 20 million over a planned two-year term.

What would the contract have covered?
Environmental coordination, hazardous material inventory surveys, and climate impact calculations for Stockholm school construction and renovation projects.

Is this procurement covered by the WTO Government Procurement Agreement?
Yes, the notice confirms GPA coverage.

Where can a legal challenge related to this procurement be filed?
Any challenge would go to Förvaltningsrätten i Stockholm, the Administrative Court of Stockholm.

Source: EU Official Journal, Contract Award Notice 478575-2026, OJ S 131/2026, published 10 July 2026. Contracting authority: Skolfastigheter i Stockholm Aktiebolag (SISAB).