What many municipalities need,
none has to plan alone.
Plan, procure and finance together: cheaper, with less effort and with capital that would be out of reach on your own.
What municipalities procure every year.
Each on its own.
Primary school. 150 to 200 new builds a year.
Water pipe. Around 12,000 sections a year.
Social housing. Around 600 projects a year.
Public buildings. Around 3,700 retrofits a year.
Wind farm. Around 100 projects a year.
Heat network. Around 165 projects a year.
Sewage sludge. Around 60 plants a year.
Senior housing. Around 330 projects a year.
City bus. Around 100 procurements a year.
Critical infrastructure. Around 5,400 projects a year.
You know this.
School, heating grid or depot: somewhere, another municipality is planning almost the same right now. Still, each one starts from scratch.
Each one plans alone.
Own planner, own tender, own risk. What one municipality has learned never reaches the next.
The people are missing.
Specifications, procurement law, grant applications: the experts for this are often scarce or not there at all. Large projects tie up capacity for years.
The money is not enough.
Budgets are getting tighter, funding programmes are complex. Many projects never start because the money is missing.
Together instead of alone.
.GUT brings municipalities with the same project together. Together they describe once what the solution must do, and then procure it together. That works for the small town just as for the large city.
Far less effort
Requirements, specifications and tender documents are produced once, together with other municipalities. You do not have to build up yourself what you lack the experts for.
Lower costs
Pooled demand and proven solutions lower price and planning risk. What many procure together becomes cheaper than any one-off.
Financing included
The financing and funding concept is already developed for every solution, you do not have to build it yourself. And because many municipalities procure together, private capital can be brought in that would be out of reach for a single project.
How we start.
Three steps, all free. How far you go is up to you.
- 1
Tell us what you are planning · 2 minutes, no obligation
You tell us your planned projects and whether you are interested in procuring together with other municipalities and exchanging experience. We bring you together with municipalities planning the same. - 2
Standards workshop · with other municipalities
You sit down with municipalities that are planning the same right now and with providers who align their solutions to it. Together you describe what the solution must do. From that we develop a standard that fits as many municipalities as possible and leads to savings on the provider side that are passed on to the municipalities. - 3
Procure instead of reinvent · joint framework agreement
The municipalities jointly tender a framework agreement under the standard. From it you call off what your municipality needs, with a finished financing concept and without a procurement procedure of your own. Whether you take part is your decision right up to the end.
What we are working on.
Any project here can be the next one, as soon as enough municipalities report it.
Pooling demand
School construction and renovation
150 to 200 a year in Germany.
Pooling demand
Renewing drinking water networks
around 12,000 a year in Germany.
Pooling demand
Social housing in series
around 600 a year in Germany.
Pooling demand
Energy retrofit of public buildings
around 3,700 a year in Germany.
Pooling demand
Repowering municipal wind farms
around 100 a year in Germany.
Pooling demand
Local heating network
around 165 a year in Germany.
Pooling demand
Sewage sludge recovery
around 60 a year in Germany.
Pooling demand
Assisted living for older people
around 330 a year in Germany.
Pooling demand
Electric bus fleets
around 100 a year in Germany.
Pooling demand
Protecting critical infrastructure
around 5,400 a year in Germany.
Planning something else?
Tell us, and we check whether it can be pooled.
.GUT estimates based on the KfW Municipal Panel, dena, KEA, DGfdB and association statistics. As of September 2026.
Who is behind .GUT.
An initiative in the interest of municipalities.
Marc Bernath
Founder, .GUT Future Cities.GUT is a privately run initiative based in Berlin. We bring together municipalities that plan the same and turn that into shared standards and joint procurement.
.GUT is financed from the savings that standardisation and pooled orders bring on both sides. Participation is free for municipalities. Solution providers pay for the workshop and a share of the orders that result from it.
Frequently asked questions.
What happens to our details?
They stay with us, stored on servers in the EU and under data protection rules. We pass on no contact details and no lists, to anyone. Public is only the number of municipalities planning a project. Whoever wants to meet you meets you in the standards workshop.
What does it cost us, and who pays .GUT?
Municipalities pay nothing, neither for the networking nor for the standards workshop. .GUT is financed from the savings that standardisation and pooled orders bring on both sides: solution providers pay for the workshop and a share of the orders that result from it.
Do we commit to anything?
To no purchase. Whether your municipality procures under the standard is its own decision, when the time comes. Whoever joins agrees to two things: to exchange with other municipalities, without fixed dates or time commitment, and to give details of the planned projects so that we can match and invite appropriately. Nothing more.
Is this fine under procurement law?
Yes. We comply with procurement law and use what it already allows today: joint tenders, innovative procedures and framework agreements. The standard describes requirements, not products, and is published before anything is tendered. Procurement decisions stay with the municipalities.
Aren't our requirements far too specific for this?
Much about your project is specific. Most of it, though, another municipality has already solved. A standard separates the two: what is the same for all is described together. What is different in your case stays adjustable, such as size, site or heat source.
How does joint procurement work?
Municipalities that want to use the standard jointly tender a framework agreement. .GUT supports the process as a service provider and takes most of the work off the municipalities. Afterwards each municipality calls off what it needs on its own, without a new procedure.
Prefer to talk? 20 minutes, online.
Book a callWhat is your municipality planning?
Tell us in two minutes. No contract, no costs. You learn how many municipalities are planning the same and you are in when the next standards workshop begins.
Marc Bernath
Founder, .GUT Future Cities