Green procurement in South Africa: perspectives on legislative provisions in metropolitan municipalities

Adelaide Owusu Agyepong,Godwell Nhamo

doi:10.1007/s10668-016-9865-9

Adelaide Owusu Agyepong, Godwell Nhamo

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-016-9865-9

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Abstract

This paper sets an objective to analyse legislative provisions for green procurement in South Africa’s metropolitan municipalities in the context of climate change and sustainable development. The main methods for data generation were interviews and document analysis. There were 30 interviews granted by among others, procurement officers, town planners and economic development specialists. In addition, 51 policy documents were retrieved, followed by a keyword search. The keywords were carefully selected and limited to those commonly used in green procurement terminology to include climate change, green procurement, renewable energy, energy efficiency, mitigation, clean technology, carbon footprint, sustainable development and green economy. The findings are that although all the metropolitan municipalities have procurement policies in place, only the City of Cape Town and eThekwini metropolitan have incorporated green procurement strategies into their supply chain management. The City of Cape Town and Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan municipalities also emerged as the only ones with stand-alone green procurement strategies. To this end, the research concludes that legislative provisions mandating green procurement in South African metropolitan municipalities are not entirely lacking, although more work needs to be done to roll this out to cover all the existing metropolitan municipalities.

Highlights

South Africa recognises the risk of general environmental decay and global warming, and is committed to responding to the climate change challenge (RSA 2009)
The City of Cape Town and Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan municipalities emerged as the only ones with stand-alone green procurement strategies
Given that metropolitan municipalities are both centres of production and consumption, activities that significantly lead to greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions resulting in global warming and climate change, this study sought to analyse the extent to which green procurement is legislated in such

Summary

Introduction

South Africa recognises the risk of general environmental decay and global warming, and is committed to responding to the climate change challenge (RSA 2009). To this end, the country has taken a number of steps to address this challenge through green policy. One of the identified areas in which climate change can be addressed is through green (sustainable) public procurement, a concept suggested at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD 2002). Given that metropolitan municipalities are both centres of production and consumption, activities that significantly lead to greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions resulting in global warming and climate change, this study sought to analyse the extent to which green procurement is legislated in such. As a global player and ranked among the top 15 GHG emitters globally, it is inevitable that South Africa, and especially its local government, be seen to be doing something regarding GHG mitigation interventions through green procurement

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Conclusion