Is public procurement fit for reaching sustainability goals? A law and economics approach to green public procurement

Kirsi-Maria Halonen

doi:10.1177/1023263x211016756

Kirsi-Maria Halonen

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/1023263x211016756

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Abstract

Green public procurement is assumed to have a strong steering effect. The recent EU Green Deal contains proposals to amend green public procurement rules from voluntary to mandatory regulation, which has been endorsed by several legal scholars. At the same time, the effectiveness of green public procurement as an environmental policy tool has been studied in economics, where research results present a reserved approach towards green public procurement’s effectiveness. This article examines green public procurement applying a law and economics methodology, with the goal of combining the approaches from different disciplines and finding ways in which environmental objectives can be effectively addressed through procurement regulation. The main conclusions are that the steering effect, costs and potential environmental impact of green public procurement vary in different industries and therefore a sector-specific approach should be adopted in the development of green public procurement regulation. In order to encourage companies to invest and develop their operations in a greener direction, it is important that a large number of contracting authorities use harmonized green public procurement criteria. Further, the effects of green public procurement regulation on competition and emissions from the private consumer market should be monitored and the potential of public procurement to achieve environmental objectives should be explored and compared with other policy options.

Highlights

In its Europe 2020 strategy, the European Commission identified and recognized public procurement’s significance in the promotion of sustainability across the EU.[1]
This paper is focused on Green Public Procurement (GPP), which has lately developed, as Trybus puts it, into a separate category of sustainability in public procurement[5] and social public procurement, which in turn aims in creating employment opportunities, promoting better employment conditions and standards, ethical trade and design for all, is not discussed
This paper aims or, more modestly put, starts the discussion that addresses this gap between different disciplines and suggests solutions to improve GPP’s cost-effectiveness.[16]

Summary

Introduction

In its Europe 2020 strategy, the European Commission identified and recognized public procurement’s significance in the promotion of sustainability across the EU.[1]. ) whereby contracting authorities take account of all three pillars of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental), when procuring goods, services or works’.4. Green public procurement (later referred as ‘GPP’) is one these three strands of sustainability and has its emphasis on minimizing the harmful environmental impact of public purchases. This paper is focused on GPP, which has lately developed, as Trybus puts it, into a separate category of sustainability in public procurement[5] and social public procurement, which in turn aims in creating employment opportunities, promoting better employment conditions and standards, ethical trade and design for all, is not discussed

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