Implementation Of Green Public Procurement Research Articles

Hiding when you're not green: An empirical analysis on green public procurement

IMPACT This article highlights the significant influence of respondent bias on green public procurement (GPP) practices. After surveying the largest contracting authorities in the Czech and Slovak Republics, the authors found that non-respondents to GPP surveys typically adopt fewer green practices. This finding underscores the need for improved monitoring and institutional pressure to enhance GPP implementation. The article presents actionable insights for increasing GPP uptake which will be valuable for practitioners in public procurement, sustainability management and policy development. The authors advocate for tailored control and incentive mechanisms, emphasizing the importance of organizational performance monitoring. This article is particularly relevant for professionals in countries with developing GPP frameworks or those operating within imperfect institutional environments. By addressing these biases and enhancing monitoring, practitioners will be able to drive more effective and sustainable procurement practices.

Green Public Procurement in Public Administration: Perceptions and Challenges in Practice

ABSTRACT The implementation of green public procurement (GPP) in the Maltese public administration was perceived as an important step that supports the achievement of environmental policies. Institutions are in place for the application of GPP. However, there are difficulties in practice, and more needs to be done in terms of training and capacity development. This study concludes that managerial decisions are taken to legitimize actions, so that the administrator appears to be doing the right thing in the eyes of the stakeholders. Institutions intentionally adopt GPP to adhere to the norms and values of society. Whether GPP has a positive effect on the environment is a secondary objective.

IMPLEMENTATION OF GREEN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Purpose: This study attempts to present the Implementation of green public procurement (GPP) along with obstacles and solutions in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) Design/methodology/approach: The method employed is a qualitative approach using interview discussions supported by documentation on the website of three HEIs. Ten stakeholders, including procurement staff, participated in the study, providing diverse perspectives. The research takes place from October 2023 until January 2024, with the research locus in the three HEIs in Indonesia. Findings: GPP is directed to support green campus programs, including sanitation and infrastructure, waste management, water saving, transportation with low emissions, renewable energy, and education and research. Leadership style, ability to innovate, and support from all academics in higher education determine the success of implementing GPP. Obstacles in implementing the GPP consist of regulatory, resource, and provider constraints that meet the requirements of the GPP. The solution that can be given to overcome these obstacles is to create strict regulations regarding the Implementation of GPP, create environmentally friendly procurement plans, make energy-saving and resource-saving movements, and look for providers that comply with GPP. Research implications: This research provides implications for the practice of green public Procurement in higher education governance. Originality/value: This ground-breaking empirical study concentrates on GPP in State Islamic Higher Education Institutions (SI-HEIs).

Institutional Transformation of Proactive Environmental Characteristics of State Procurement into Imperative Ones: The Regional Case

Ensuring sustainable economic development, environmental protection, and conservation of natural resources are the top priorities of the new edition of the "National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation". One key aspect highlighted in the strategy is the significance of green public procurement, which plays a crucial role in reducing the environmental impact of human activities and promoting environmentally responsible behavior among companies. The lack of established regulatory mechanisms and the ongoing debates surrounding the concept of "green procurement" have prompted the research objective of identifying the factors influencing the successful implementation of green public procurement through econometric modeling. The goal is to assess how well public contractors are currently implementing green procurement practices and to develop strategies to enhance their adherence to these practices by 2023, particularly within the Southern Federal District. An analysis of existing literature has revealed gaps in scientific knowledge, particularly in the realm of comparing the actualization of green economy institutions in regional strategies and monitoring the implementation of green procurement within the Southern Federal District. These research issues will guide the comparative assessment of green economy institutions, monitoring of green procurement practices, and structuring of data within the study. The study will rely on statistical data obtained from the Unified Information System for procurement, using keywords related to the environmental sustainability of purchased goods to analyze the trends in green public procurement practices. Through this research, recommendations for the institutional transformation of green procurement practices into a must-follow standard for public contractors will be developed.

Green public procurement in the most visited European museums: a comparison and a mapping

While scholarly research on green public procurement (GPP) keeps growing, until now it has paid little attention to museums that must make decisions about GPP implementation. This paper breaks new ground by exploring GPP implementation in the most visited European museums. The proposed conceptual framework allows a comparison and a mapping of museums’ GPP implementation levels while taking account of how these levels are related to the national GPP performance. Complementing this framework with the analysis of the up-to-date data from the Tender Electronic Daily database yields two central findings. First, museums that formalized their GPP policies in their strategic organizational documents exhibit higher levels of GPP implementation than other museums that have not done so. Second, the majority of the investigated museums follow national trends of GPP implementation, with examples of exceeding or falling below these trends being rare. The article is important for policy makers and practitioners as it highlights the importance of the factor of institutionalization of green procurement in individual organizations, which is crucial for successful implementation of green procurement.

Green public procurement of clothing: Evidence from Swiss tendering during a major legal change

Green Public Procurement (GPP) is highlighted as a tool for promoting national environmental protection goals by influencing the demand for products and services. The evolution and characteristics of tendering practices in important sectors and institutional influences on implementation are largely unknown. This study evaluates the effects of recent and ambitious legislative changes on the GPP in the Swiss textile sector from 2018 to 2022. Relying on tender document analysis, it concludes that GPP has increased in tenders issued by organizations subject to the new law. The analysis further highlights the importance of differentiating levels of GPP implementation (“greenness”, “stringency”) to understand GPP evolution. Finally, this study abductively formulates hypotheses about GPP implementation in federal systems. The article emphasizes that analyzing GPP requires an understanding of policy change features and measurements of impacts on GPP at different levels of governance and in different policy domains.

THE EU GREEN PUBLIC ROCUREMENT AS A POLICY TOOL TO IMPLEMENT THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

The transition to a circular economy is essential for environmental sustainability and serves as a strategic approach for achieving long-term economic stability, social equity, and resilience. Green public procurement (GPP) is closely intertwined with the concept of the circular economy, and both play a pivotal role in influencing sustainable development. The EU provides guidelines for GPP that align with circular economy principles, encouraging public authorities to opt for products and services with lower environmental impacts and higher resource efficiency. GPP establishes high environmental performance standards, reduces waste, enhances resource efficiency, and promotes the reuse and recycling of materials. The implementation of GPP offers benefits for the environment, economic growth, and social well-being, but challenges such as consistent application, market readiness, and higher initial costs persist. The research indicates that GPP can make a significant contribution to sustainability objectives and emphasizes the necessity of supportive policies to promote broader adoption of GPP practices. By aligning policy initiatives with sustainable procurement practices, the EU member states aim to foster a more robust, resource-efficient, and environmentally conscious economy. Such a comprehensive approach not only addresses environmental issues but also fuels economic and social progress.

Did governments neglect the environment during the COVID-19 pandemic? An empirical analysis of green public procurement

The COVID-19 pandemic posed various challenges to governments around the globe. One of them has been keeping green actions towards a better environment. The impact of the pandemic on these government actions remains unknown. We explore Green Public Procurement (GPP) in the award criteria on contract notices for twenty-seven European countries as recorded in the Tenders Electronic Daily database for the period 2016–2022. We find a negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on GPP implementation, an effect that became more marked as the number of COVID-19 cases increased. Countries with better levels of bureaucracy successfully navigated their way through these turbulent times and increased their green procurement. Countries with higher level of GPP before the pandemic were less susceptible to decreases in their GPP commitment during the pandemic.

Environmental and economic benefits of Green Public procurement through the Bilan Carbone and Life Cycle Costing methodologies: a case study for Arpa Piemonte

The main objective of this article is to analyse the economic and environmental benefits associated with the implementation of Green Public Procurement and Minimum Environmental Criteria in a specific tender published by Arpa Piemonte for its headquarters in the city of Turin. The focus lies on the modernization of the internal lighting system shifting from CFL to LED technology: the analysis of environmental aspects measures the reduction of GHG emissions through Bilan Carbone; the economic benefits are analysed with the Life Cycle Costing tool of the European Commission.

A Review of Green Public Procurement in the EU

Public authorities are major consumers in Europe. Each year they spend approximately 2 trillion euros, equivalent to some 19% of the EU’s Gross Domestic Product on the purchase of goods, such as office equipment, building components and transport vehicles; services, such as buildings maintenance, transport services, cleaning and catering services and works. By promoting and using "Green Public Procurement (GPP)" public authorities can drive the market to greener products and services, achieving an important reduction of the environmental impacts. Within the EU public procurement is subject to a number of sources of Community law. In addition, there are common criteria for the adoption of Green Public Procurement in specific sectors (i.e. copying and graphic paper, office IT equipment, cleaning products and services, transport, construction, etc.) and a number of sources of interpretation of the relevant laws and principles (i.e. the "Buying Green handbook"). On the review of GPP the work team firstly analyzed the EU strategic policy, and then chose a series of examples to evaluate the implementation of GPP, illustrate how public authorities have made greener purchasing a reality and provide guidance to others. The evaluation included some of the most interesting case studies related to different countries (i.e. Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Malta, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Latvia, France, UK, Germany, Greece, Finland, etc.) and collected by European Commission over the years. According to the results of the evaluation the benefits associated with GPP are not limited only to environmental impact, but can include everything from social and health to economic and political benefits. Today even if the concept of GPP has been widely recognised as a useful tool, it remains a voluntary instrument. Member States should be encouraged to draw up Action Plans for greening their public procurement. Among other, the coming years should be a growing political commitment at national, EU and international level.

Gender Heterogeneity and Politics in Decision-Making About Green Public Procurement in the Czech Republic

Green public procurement (GPP) is a widely recognized public policy tool that has attracted considerable scholarly research. However, much of this research has paid little attention to the nature of discretionary decision-making on the part of bureaucrats and local politicians; nor has it recognized that a crucial determinant of the implementation of GPP is the extent to which women hold administrative and political positions. While GPP tends to be discussed as a tool for promoting gender equality, we draw on feminist insights to argue that doing so may be a tool for enhancing the uptake and implementation of GPP. Utilizing the data from a large-N survey among local politicians and upper-echelon bureaucrats in the Czech Republic, we develop a path analysis model exploring the influence of gender on their decision-making. The results give credence to our overall argument that women are more likely to promote GPP. This argument not only breaks new ground by revealing the gendered nature of GPP but also generates straightforward policy implications.

Identification of the Main Environmental Impact Categories Over the Life Cycle of Hot Mix Asphalt: An Application to Green Public Procurement

Increased environmental awareness has led road agencies to consider the implementation of green public procurement (GPP). Besides sustainability rating systems, environmental indicators can also be implemented in GPP to help road agencies make informed decisions about the environmental impact of the pavement works they procure. A vast literature review revealed that it is still unclear which impact categories are responsible for the majority of the total environmental impact of asphalt mixtures. The objective of this study was to identify the impact categories with the greatest contribution to the total environmental impact of hot mix asphalt so that they can be implemented in the form of environmental indicators in GPP. The scope included conventional and polymer-modified binder and three mix design alternatives: only virgin aggregate, reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), and RAP with rejuvenators. The cradle-to-cradle life cycle assessment (LCA) performed showed that global warming (GW), fine particulate matter formation, fossil resource scarcity, and human non-carcinogenic toxicity were responsible for at least 90% of the total impact according to the ReCiPe 2016 hierarchic assessment method. Therefore, a simplified LCA focusing on these four impact categories seems sufficient for the purpose of comparing the environmental performance of alternatives in GPP. It was also found that GW alone accounted for approximately 50% of the total impact, which seems to make GW a good surrogate for the total impact among the asphalt mixtures evaluated. Future work should investigate whether the conclusions from this study still hold up when using secondary materials, lower temperature mixing technologies, or in-situ recycling.

The Recommendations for Implementation of Green Public Procurement in Hospitals

The Recommendations for Implementation of Green Public Procurement in Hospitals

Environmental and economic benefits of green public procurement through the Bilan Carbone and Life Cycle Costing methodologies: a case study for Arpa Piemonte

The main objective of this article is to analyse the economic and environmental benefits associated with the implementation of Green Public Procurement and Minimum Environmental Criteria in a specific tender published by Arpa Piemonte for its headquarters in the city of Turin. The focus lies on the modernization of the internal lighting system shifting from CFL to LED technology: the analysis of environmental aspects measures the reduction of GHG emissions through Bilan Carbone; the economic benefits are analysed with the Life Cycle Costing tool of the European Commission.

How external stakeholders drive the green public procurement practice? An organizational learning perspective

Purpose This study aims to uncover the black box of the influence mechanism between external stakeholder drivers and green public procurement practice, and meanwhile to explore the moderating role of administrative level in this process. Green public procurement (GPP) has been widely implemented. Existing literature has found that external stakeholder drivers can affect public sectors' GPP practice, however, the definition of its connotation is still unclear, and how external stakeholders affect GPP practice has remained a black box. Design/methodology/approach After defining the major external stakeholders, this study develops a multiple mediation theoretical model using survey data from 142 Chinese local public sectors. It aims to uncover the black box of the influence mechanism between external stakeholder drivers and GPP practice and meanwhile explore the moderating effect of administrative levels in this process. Findings The results show that external stakeholder drivers have a positive relationship with GPP practices. The knowledge of GPP implementation policies and the knowledge of GPP benefits can both mediate this relationship. This study also finds that the administrative level of public sectors can positively moderate the mediating effect produced by the knowledge of GPP implementation policies and negatively moderate the mediation effect produced by the knowledge of GPP benefits. Social implications Local governments need to better encourage public sectors to implement GPP. Managers of public sectors need to pay attention to organizational learning to acquire relevant knowledge on GPP. Originality/value This study makes a theoretical contribution to a better understanding of the influence mechanism for GPP practice. This study also provides comparisons of GPP implementation policies between China and European Union.

Sustainability Theory: A Review of Key Ideas for Sustainability and green procurement context

Sustainability and sustainable development have become important concepts and goals across science and society. Sustainability, connected to desirable long-term conditions, is an inherently applied in public sector, public procurements. Every year the European Union (EU) Member States collectively spend around 14% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on public procurement. In Latvia, public procurement accounts for 17% of GDP. The review of the new public procurement directives and their transposition process in Latvia plans to show new opportunities for green public procurement (GPP) application: the contracting authority will be able to reject, for example, an abnormally low bid, include environmental management system requirements in the selection criteria, use life cycle costing criteria, etc. GPP is the systematic integration of environmental criteria into all activities related to the procurement of goods or services, from the identification of needs, the development of appropriate specifications and evaluation procedures, to the monitoring of the results achieved. The aim of the work is to analyse sustainability theory and explore the application of GPP to improve the quality of GPP through sustainability. With a view to increasing sustainable consumption over the last 25 years, several initiatives have been developed. The United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development developed the Concept of Sustainable Development "Our Common Future (1987)", that was widely used in the context of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Sustainable development concept was defined at the international event in 1995 in Oslo "use of goods and services that respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life, while minimizing the use of natural resources, toxic materials and emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle, so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations" (Giulio, Fischer, et al., 2014). The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) made "green growth" its 2011 slogan (Lorek, Spangenberg, 2014). The green economy became a pillar of major European and international strategies: most notably in the Europe 2020 strategy adopted in 2010 by the EU to drive sustainable growth, and in the Rio+20 outcome. The incentive to use GPP is based on the fact that in many countries public sector spending amounts to a significant part of the economy, and that this purchasing power can be used to influence production and consumption to achieve desired reductions on environmental impact (Lundberg, S., Marklund, P.O., Strömbäck, E., Sundstrom, D., 2015). When public authorities go green, they make an invaluable contribution to environmental protection and sustainable development, setting a trend that often convinces other to follow suit (Day, 2005). The practice amounts to significant expenditure, excluding utilities and defence, across Europe, comprising 13% of European GDP in 2015 (Commission, 2016). In the last decade, the use of environmental criteria in public tenders has been increasing defusing (Testa, F., Iraldo, F., Frey, M., Daddi, T., 2016). The implementation of GPP is covering new sector in recent years, identifying new practices (Cheng, W., Apolloni, A., D'Amato, A., Zhu, Q., 2018). The challenges that the European municipalities face on a path towards sustainability were outlined, along with the undertaking of sustainable procurement and the active promoton of sustainable production and consumption, particularly, eco- labelled, organic, ethical and fair-trade products (Belgica, P.B., Jose, B.C.M., 2016). Keywords: sustainability, green procurement, sustainable theory

The impact of e-procurement on institutional quality

PurposeBecause of the renewed interest in public purchasing and the strategic use of public funds under the requirements of sustainable development, the question arose once again as to how to curb the fall of institutional quality once criteria other than price are inserted into the decision-making in public purchasing. E-procurement has been repeatedly named as one of the most efficient tools to that effect and the present paper sets out to discover whether the implementation of e-procurement in a particular country per se entails also higher institutional quality, allowing for a wider implementation of green and sustainable procurement at the national, regional and municipal level without the fear of worsening the country’s institutional quality. By analyzing the implementation of e-procurement in Denmark, the Netherlands and in Portugal, this paper aims to verify the hypothesis that the implementation of e-procurement implies better institutions in terms of public purchasing. As such, the conclusions will be used in further research on the prerequisites for a successful implementation of green public procurement across the European Union.Design/methodology/approachGathering data on institutional quality of three early e-procurement adopters (Denmark, the Netherlands and Portugal) allows for comparison of institutional quality pre- and post-e-procurement implementation. By using difference-in-differences comparison the paper seeks to answer the question how doesmandatory e-procurement influence institutional quality on the national level.FindingsThe paper finds that the reform is generally associated with a relatively stronger control of corruption in the Netherlands and Denmark, while a similar reform in Portugal failed to translate into a stronger control of corruption. Furthermore, while using the quality of regulation as a dependent variable, a positive and robust effect on the quality of regulation in Denmark was shown, while the quality of reputation in the Netherlands and Portugal declined in the post-reform period, with the drop in the quality of regulation in Portugal being considerably greater, a two-fold higher amount than the estimated drop in the Netherlands. The paper suggests that in spite of the same aims, the reform yielded substantially different or even opposing effects compared to Denmark.Research limitations/implicationsBy examining three examples of early adopters, further research with broader impact is needed to deduce general implications for e-procurement implementation. Furthermore, implementation of e-procurement at the regional or local level can also yield distinct results.Social implicationsUnderstanding the actual impact of e-procurement on institutional quality is indispensable for further study on the matter. The present study argues that e-procurement needs to be accompanied by additional measures or variables to yield a positive impact on institutional quality in public procurement.Originality/valueAs to originality, the present paper uses a law and economics approach, originating or better said drawing motivation from green public procurement concerns, trying to provide an insight in terms of tools that can be used to eliminate concerns regarding institutional quality when implementing green public procurement practices.

A systems approach for green public procurement implementation

PurposeThis paper aims to identify important factors in green public procurement (GPP) implementation and then to clarify how these factors affect GPP implementation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors applied the Delphi method first and then conducted a focused and constrained multiple case study at 18 government procurement centers across China.FindingsThe authors identified four clusters of factors for successful GPP implementation: more clear, consistent and operational policy goals; a nation-wide green procurement campaign to enhance social capital and cultural resources; promoting staff’s ethics, professionalism, capacity and knowledge; and establishing checks and balances among organizations involved in the whole purchasing process.Social implicationsGPP can significantly improve environmental protection and sustainable development.Originality/valueBased on key insights from systems theory and agency theory, the authors emphasize that GPP implementation must take down its own functional silos and adopt a process approach across organizational tiers to synchronize human resource based and inter-organizational capabilities into a unified whole through information sharing, communications and collaboration.

Price/time/intellectual efficiency of procurement: Uncovering the related factors in Chinese public authorities

High efficiency is one of the important goals of public procurement (PP); however, research on PP efficiency is still not sufficient, especially in the context of developing countries. With a focus on the purchasing phase, this study measures three aspects of procurement efficiency of public authorities: price, time and intellectual efficiency. The relevant factors of these three aspects are explored and examined. 838 PP contracts in Chengdu city, China were collected in the first half of 2018 using a web crawler programme. Regression method is used to analyse the data. This study finds that the price efficiency of PP is negatively associated with the implementation of green public procurement (GPP) but is positively associated with the evaluation method (the weight of bidding price during evaluation) and the number of bidders. Time efficiency is negatively associated with GPP implementation. Intellectual efficiency is negatively associated with the size of the procurement. This study accomplishes the following: I. extends research to a still relatively unexplored context: developing countries; II. adds to the studies on public procurement efficiency; and III. investigates the influence of GPP implementation on PP efficiency in a developing country.

Evaluation of Factors Affecting Implementation of Green Public Procurement Governments in Laikipia County Government, Kenya.

Green Public Procurement has been used as a tool to achieve environmental objectives by some countries especially in Europe. Public procurement in Kenya is estimated to account for between 70 and 80 percent of the national budget. This gives the government purchasing power to influence manufacturing and supply of green products for sustainable development. County governments in Kenya are allocated between 15 and 45 percent of the total country’s income. Despite all these finances Counties possess, many of them do not fully use their purchasing power to achieve environmental objectives. Laikipia County for example, did very well on procurement activities to be ranked the best performing entity in public procurement in Kenya in 2014, yet it did not have a similar identity on Green Public Procurement. It is this research gap that this study sought to fill. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the factors affecting implementation of Green Public Procurement in Laikipia County government. The study was guided by knowledge gap and buyers’ perception on green products as independent variables and implementation of Green Public Procurement as the dependant variable. Descriptive research design was applied in this study. The study targeted County governments in Kenya. The study population was 45 employees from Laikipia County government drawn from procurement and finance department. Primary data was collected by use of a semi structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was self administered. Descriptive statistics and statistical model of multiple regression were used in analysis of data .The study established that knowledge gap (0.561) and buyer’s perception on GPP (0.143) had a positive effect on GPP implementation with knowledge gap as the major one. The study recommends County governments to organize for compulsory training of its staff on GPP. They should conduct lifecycle costing of all products procured by the County governments so as to create the right perception on these products.