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CALL FOR TENDER: EEB/ZMWG WEBSITE RESTRUCTURING

EEB/ZMWG CALL FOR TENDER: WEBSITE RESTRUCTURING

Part 1: Introduction

The deadline for the tender is: 12/02/2018

Part 2: About the EEB and the Zero Mercury Working Group

  • Created in 1974, the EEB is now the largest federation of environmental citizens’ organisations in Europe. It currently consists of over 140 member organisations in more than 30 countries (virtually all EU Member States plus some accession and neighbouring countries), including a growing number of European networks, and representing some 15 million individual members and supporters.
  • We work on a vast array of environmental issues and our policy officers work with experts, our members, politicians and the media to protect and further develop environmental policies.
  • The Zero Mercury Working Group (ZMWG) is an international coalition of over 95 public interest environmental and health non-governmental organizations from more than 50 countries from around the world formed in 2005 by the European Environmental Bureau and the Mercury Policy Project.  ZMWG strives for zero supply, demand, and emissions of mercury from all anthropogenic sources, with the goal of reducing mercury in the global environment to a minimum.  Our mission is to advocate and support the adoption and implementation of a legally binding instrument which contains mandatory obligations to eliminate where feasible, and otherwise minimize, the global supply and trade of mercury, the global demand for mercury, anthropogenic releases of mercury to the environment, and human and wildlife exposure to mercury.

Our website for more information: www.eeb.org / http://www.zeromercury.org

Part 3: Tender

Summary

The Zero Mercury campaign at the EEB would like to build a new website for Zero Mercury Campaign/Zero Mercury Working Group based on the existing website available at www.zeromercury.org – while maintaining the URL.

Active since 2005 the Zero Mercury Campaign, having grown into the Zero Mercury Working Group has a long history of action. We would like to see a visual update of the website, to a more modern and user-friendly visual look. The division of sections, and their related subsections should be divided between introductory and advanced mercury issues.

-          We would like to convey through our website an approachable and educational tool for mercury related issues.

-          On the other hand, on separate tabs we would like to make available the recent activity related:

  1.  to project implementation through our members in different countries, and
  2. the developments related to policy at international and EU levels.

The distinction between the “introduction to mercury” section and the “Policy” and “Projects” sections should be clear. We would like a visualization of introducing the general public to mercury through its various topics (processes, products etc), and then at the end of the page have a link where an individual can arrive at how the Zero Mercury Working Group is working on that specific issue at project and policy level as relevant. Simultaneously however, we would like to have a tab where stakeholders familiar with mercury issues and/or our work, can get directly to the advanced information without going through the introductory informational section or tabs.

We are looking for a proposal that explains in detail how the concept note below can be implemented.

Tender: revamp a website

  • The Zero mercury Working Group is looking to revamp its website. It currently does not do justice to the work carried out by the 95+ members organisations. This means a much more advanced structure with more visuals, conveying the image of a serious, trustworthy NGO coalition.
  • The new website should be Wordpress-based, allow for easy management internally and coded in an open and accessible way to permit other third party developers to easily adjust.
  • We would like the website to be a one-stop-shop for individuals that are new to mercury issues and simultaneously provide a platform where stakeholders familiar with mercury issues can find updates on international policy developments and relevant project information. 
  • The audience of the Zero Mercury Working Group website includes our members, representatives of EU institutions and member state governments, journalists, academics, other NGOs, progressive business and members of the public.

Please include the following and their related costs (separately) in your quote:

  • Design and development of new easy to navigate website
  • Transfer of data from the current our current CMS system, Joomla.  
  • Annual costs for domain name and hosting (including backup). We may decide to handle this ourselves depending on the quotes provided.
  • Annual costs for technical support.
  • Basic Google Analytics tracking on all pages.
  • SEO on all pages
  • Responsive design, with slick page scaling for tablets and smartphones.

Indicative timeline

  • 25/01 Publication for tender
  • 12/02 Deadline for submissions
  • 23/02 EEB/ZMWG evaluates proposals and contacts suppliers / Communicate to winning service provider
  • End Feb-Beginning of March: Signature of contract with EEB/ZMWG
  • Building of the website: March – April
  • Launch: end April- beg May

Criteria to be considered during evaluation

  • combination of price and quality,
  • production / delivery time and service.
  • having/using environmental and sustainability policy/criteria
  • the EEB holds the right to exclude a supplier who may have a negative financial record, that violates criteria such as bankruptcy, not paying taxes etc.

Part  4: Functionality

  • Slider for home page
  • Horizontal menu with drop down elements (within homepage – e.g. About us, About Mercury, Policy Developments, Projects, Resources, News  )
  • About us section
  • Map that interacts with posts to deliver news on members’ projects/activities
  • News section (Press releases)
  • Newsletter sign up widget
  • Position paper section (listed chronologically)
  • Publication section  displaying in an attractive way – showing the front cover of the publication – up to 10 publications per year
  • Photos, infographics, and videos should be downloadable.
  • Events section
  • Contact form
  • Possibility of archiving the content of the existing website

Home page

The home page is meant to be a public oriented landing page for individuals wishing to learn about mercury. The first image should be a large slider which in principle will not change over time. The slider will include 4-5 pictures referring to introductory information about the challenges surrounding mercury pollution, but also to some of the priority areas we work on.

Above it, a horizontal menu, with dropdown elements can be displayed, dividing between general mercury information, the policy work that ZMWG does along with current projects and other elements (to be detailed at a later stage e.g about us etc). Below the slider there will be some space to describe ZMWG group as an organization and post our latest news. There should also be space to include a footer providing our location and contact information.

As examples please see http://www.artisanalgold.org/ or www.sradev.org

Map

The website should provide country-specific pages/posts with contact information for our different national partners, in addition to a description and updates of relevant projects that they do appearing within our website (via posts) apart from linking back to national websites. Accessing these country specific pages should be done through a map, e.g.  found on “About us” page. The map needs to highlight somehow differently countries where EEB/ZMWG are funding (or have funded) directly projects, whilst providing a link to that campaign (page/post).

We would also need to post updates about the relevant projects/campaigns, that will simultaneously appear in the “What’s new” section of the home page.

Technical prerequisites:

The CMS should be WordPress to align with our other websites. The current site is working with Joomla.

Visual identity / look and feel:

We do want to update, but not reinvent the visual identity of the Zero Mercury Campaign/ Working Group.

The Zero Mercury logo stays unchanged and is our branding basis. We would like the look and feel of the new website to be more visually oriented, as now it feels a bit text-heavy.

Footer: Logos and disclaimers of EC will need to go somewhere at the bottom 

Home Press Releases The real cost of dental mercury revealed
The real cost of dental mercury revealed PDF Print
Thursday, 22 March 2012 16:50
EEB LOGO FINAL

The real cost of dental mercury revealed

 

[Thursday 22/3/2012, Brussels, Belgium] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EEB[i], Europe's largest federation of environmental citizens' organizations, has released a new report “The Real Cost of Dental Mercury,” showing that dental amalgam is much more costly than the alternatives when so-called “external” costs to society are factored in. This report contributes to the EU discussions on potentially phasing out dental amalgam, vis-à-vis the presentation of a draft EC study on Monday 26 March, in Brussels[ii]. The EEB has repeatedly called for a phase out of mercury in dentistry[iii], a threat to human health and nature that many of us carry around in our mouths.  

“The calculations in the report confirm that amalgam is by no means the least expensive tooth filling material when the external costs to society are also taken into account,” said Elena Lymberidi-Settimo, Project Coordinator, Zero Mercury Campaign. “Amalgam’s negative environmental effects are increasingly well known in the EU and globally. Ultimately, it is society that pays for the uncontrolled releases of mercury from amalgam use through additional pollution control costs, the loss of common (publicly-owned) resources, and the health effects associated with mercury contamination. ”

The report demonstrates that the basic cost of an “equivalent” amalgam filling in the US is around 109 Euros compared to 140 Euros for an “equivalent” composite filling.  However, the report then shows that even using conservative assumptions, when the real cost (to the environment and society at large) of amalgam is accounted for, amalgam turns out to be significantly more costly than composite as a filling material, by up to 66 Euro for a single filling,[iv].

‘While this report focuses on amalgam use only in the U.S., this case can serve as a valuable example also for the EU, said Elena Lymberidi-Settimo, ‘Amalgam is already banned in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark and severely restricted in Germany and Finland.  These experiences clearly show there is scarcely any clinical situation in which the use of amalgam might be necessary. Clearly, there is every reason to accelerate the shift to mercury-free dentistry’.

In summary, the environmental concerns, the substitution principle, and the precautionary principle regarding direct health effects from amalgams all show the need for an amalgam phase out. Yet now another clear reason is provided: amalgam is far from being a bargain, and is in fact significantly more costly than composites.  EEB is therefore urging the European Commission and Member States to act immediately to phase out the use of mercury in the dental sector as quickly as possible.

 

Contacts

Elena Lymberidi-Settimo, Project Coordinator ‘Zero Mercury Campaign’, European Environmental Bureau, T: +32 2 2891301, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it "> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Alison Abrahams Communications Officer, European Environmental Bureau +32 (0) 2289 13 09 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it "> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Notes to the editor

[1] In the EU, mercury in dental tooth fillings is the second largest use of mercury, comprising 23.5% of the annual  consumption, equal to 90-110 tonnes of mercury in 2007 - COM(2010) 723 final, COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the review of the Community Strategy Concerning Mercury

[2] The new report describes in detail, and costs out the significant contribution of dental mercury waste to the environment, including: to the soil and into the air via wastewater sludge, burial, atmospheric deposition; to the atmosphere via cremation; to surface waters, and eventually to the groundwater. Since high quality and cost-effective alternatives – including composites, glass ionomers and “compomers” – are readily available, this report therefore concludes, from both an environmental and societal cost perspective, that dental amalgam should be phased out.   

[3] Adverse effects on the environment and society over the whole life cycle of dental amalgam[v] are also clearly demonstrated in the recent draft BIOS report for the European Commission.   They can only be sustainably avoided by phasing out amalgam as a dental restorative material and switching to mercury-free alternatives.

Relevant documents

EEB/ZMWG/HEAL/HCWH/WFPHA Letter to EU Environment Ministers: Support for phase-outs of mercury use in dentistry in the EU and globally (146.80 kB) , 23 February 2012

Mercury in Dental Use: Environmental Implications for the European Union (689.69 kB) 01 May 2007

Report from the conference 'Dental Sector as a Source of Mercury Contamination', Brussels, 25 May 2007 (1.22 MB) 01 October 2007


[i] Mercury Policy Project and Consumers for Dental Choice will be co-releasing the report shortly in the US.

[iii] EEB/ZMWG/HEAL/HCWH/WFPHA Letter to EU Environment Ministers: Support for phase-outs of mercury use in dentistry in the EU and globally, http://www.zeromercury.org/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&;view=file&id=156:eeb-zmwg-heal-hcwh-letter-to-eu-environment-ministers-support-for-phase-outs-of-mercury-use-in-dentistry-in-the-eu-and-globally&Itemid=15

[iv] Cost of amalgam filling is 144 USD (109 Euro), and cost of composite is 185 USD (140Euro). Two approaches are analysed; one adds an extra 41-67 USD (31-51 Euro) to the commercial cost of the filling if we consider the additional cost required to keep dental mercury out of the environment. Tthe second adds (60-128 USD) 45-97 Euro to the commercial cost of amalgam when quantifying the benefits for people and the environment that would result from a phase-out of mercury use in dentistry. These would include such benefits as reduced health costs, reduced environmental effects, additional jobs created, etc.  In most cases these benefits are simply the same as “avoided costs.”     Therefore on average when external costs are considered the cost of amalgam would be up to 87 USD (66 Euro) more, than the cost of composite.

[v] Including: mercury production, preparation of filling materials, removal of old fillings and placement of new ones, and environmental and health impacts from mercury recycling, sewage discharges, waste disposal and releases from crematoria and cemeteries