Sustainable Public Procurement Research Articles

An empirical study on technology readiness level of industries to use green hydrogen in India: role of policy interventions

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the determinants influencing industrial adoption of green hydrogen amidst the global transition towards sustainability. Recognizing green hydrogen as a pivotal clean energy alternative for industrial applications is critical for understanding its potential integration into sustainable practices. Design/methodology/approach This research examines the impact of factors such as innovativeness, perceived ease of use, user comfort, optimism and governmental policies on the industrial intention towards green hydrogen usage. Using responses from 227 Indian industry professionals and conducting analysis via the SmartPLS software, the study reveals a discernible discomfort among industrial workers pertaining to the daily application of green hydrogen. Findings The research presents an array of policy recommendations for stakeholders. Emphasized strategies include the introduction of green hydrogen certificates, sustainable public procurement mechanisms, tax incentives, green labelling protocols and the establishment of a dedicated hydrogen skill development council, all of which can significantly influence the trajectory of green hydrogen adoption within the industrial sector. Originality/value This research synthesizes various elements, from industry perception and challenges to policy implications, presenting a holistic view of green hydrogen’s potential role in industry decarbonization and SDG realization. In essence, this study deepens not only the empirical understanding but also pioneers fresh theoretical frameworks, setting a precedent for subsequent academic endeavours.

Ghosts in the Machine: How Big Data Analytics Can Be Used to Strengthen Online Public Procurement Accountability

The core of sustainable public procurement lies in its ability to stem uneconomical public expenditures that waste taxpayer money and stifle social trust and development. The external audit of public procurement proves problematic since current research fails to provide sufficient empirical studies aimed at identifying procurement fraud. The development of online portals with embedded e-procurement solutions, along with the big data revolution, open new horizons and allow us to reveal trends otherwise impossible to spot, such as transactions achieved in an exclusive commercial relationship, in which a vendor engages only with a single public entity. By using innovative data acquisition techniques, our research encompasses 2.25 million online direct public procurement procedures conducted in 2023 using the Romanian portal for public procurement, totaling EUR 3.22 billion. By aggregating databases obtained from various public sources, our analysis achieved remarkable granularity, using over 112 million data elements—50 pertaining to each transaction. Research results indicate a unique sub-population of public procurement procedures—those conducted with “in-house” vendors totaling 14.28% of all direct public acquisitions and which is significantly differentiated along the entire list of analyzed criteria—financial, geographical, statistical, or risk-wise—illustrating a troubling phenomenon: possible gerrymandering of the online public procurement landscape, which, at least in theory, resembles a perfect market, by cultivating preferential commercial relations, thus affecting the legality, regularity, and economical aspects of public procurement.

Increasing the role of sustainability in public procurement of personal protective equipment

Sustainability in producing and procuring personal protective equipment (PPE) has become increasingly important in recent years as the COVID-19 pandemic multiplied their usage worldwide. PPE is mostly produced from fossil-based plastic materials, which burdens the environment. We investigate how sustainability from environmental and social perspectives was considered in public tenders in a non-strategic category of PPE during the pandemic, and what were the most relevant enablers and barriers for healthcare procurement units to implement sustainable procurement practices in their procurement actions. Literature review focused on barriers and enablers of sustainable procurement. We interviewed procurement managers and specialists in Finnish healthcare organizations. The transcribed interviews were examined using the inductive content analysis. Sustainability is limitedly considered in public tenders, even though the EU directive on public procurement and national legislation encourages sustainability. Lack of local production, infrastructure for purification and reuse, financial and human resources, organizational level actions and end-users’ perceptions appear to be the most significant barriers for public procurement units. Due to these factors, sustainability was not the decisive factor in selecting providers for PPE during in the pandemic. Sustainability is often highlighted in relation to public sector and especially public procurement, but according to our findings it shows significantly less in actual procurement practices. Efforts are required to both offer more sustainable PPE in the market and developing the recycling and reuse processes in healthcare.

Sustainability Clauses in ‘Public’ Contracts

Abstract Under the Public Sector Directive, public buyers are allowed to include sustainability considerations in their purchasing decisions within the limits of the principles of procurement. This framework allows criteria linked to the subject matter to be contractualised. Though different criteria are widely employed in public procurement within the umbrella of sustainable public procurement, the literature mostly focuses on stages leading to the contract award instead of considering the public contract as a document incorporating contractual obligations. On the other side, green and social commitments in (business) contracts are considerations that are not necessarily linked to the subject matter. Though their value is acknowledged, their enforcement proves to be challenging due to the restraints of contract law. By using European contract law as a reference point, this paper compares sustainability clauses in business contracts to sustainability clauses in public contracts – to determine whether the EU regime applicable to public contracts offers solutions to these hurdles.

Ecological Factors in Public Procurement and Corporate Sustainability Policies

European Institutions and scholars are reflecting upon the nature of the requirements that are or can be used to implement sustainability through Public Procurement. As far as public organisations are concerned, the Portuguese government's actions are in the same wavelength as the European guidelines on the matter. Public procurement involves economic operators. Thus, it is important to try to understand if the European Union proposal for a directive on "Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence" is an interesting tool in the discussion. Recently, the Portuguese Council of Ministers issued Resolution no. 132/2023, of 25 October, defining the ecological criteria applicable to certain kinds of contracts and products, goods and services concerning some administrative bodies, a Resolution which, nevertheless, is prone to criticism. May the shift of the European Union Public Procurement paradigm help implement Sustainable Public Procurement through mandatory requirements? Can the future Directive help economic operators align with contracting authorities to implement Sustainable Public Procurement? Might the obligation to include environmental factors help fulfil the Directive's due diligence obligations? And, lastly, has Portugal taken the right step with the issuance of Resolution no. 132/2023?

The roles and dynamics of transition intermediaries in enabling sustainable public food procurement: insights from Spain

Abstract Sustainable Public Food Procurement (SPFP) is gaining recognition for its potential to improve the sustainability of food systems and promote healthier diets. However, SPFP faces various challenges, including coordination issues, actor dynamics, infrastructure limitations, unsustainable habits, and institutional resistance, among others. Drawing upon insights from the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) on socio-technical transitions and the X-curve model on transition dynamics, this study investigates the role of transition intermediaries in facilitating SPFP-induced transformations in food systems. Focusing on four case studies in Spain, we identify common barriers encountered in SPFP and analyse how distinct types of transition intermediaries contribute individually and collectively to address these challenges. Additionally, we explore how intermediary networks evolve throughout different phases of the transition process. Our findings reveal that SPFP barriers are systemic and interconnected, emphasizing the necessity of collective intermediation to overcome these obstacles. Furthermore, our results reveal how collective intermediation is orchestrated by pivotal intermediaries who mobilize diverse transition intermediaries, shaping multiple transition pathways. These intermediaries operate at both food system regimes and niches, challenging the conventional notion that transformative change can only originate from niche efforts. Lastly, we highlight the dynamic and flexible nature of intermediation in SPFP transitions, underscoring the importance of adaptability in strategies as these transitions evolve over time. Practical implications include the need for context-specific, adaptive approaches and strategies that leverage intermediary diversity. This research offers insights for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars into SPFP and broader transitions towards food systems transformation, fostering a more comprehensive understanding of these transition processes.

Developing healthy and sustainable school food systems: A collaborative practice in the city of Madrid

Abstract Problem Eating habits and lifestyle during childhood and adolescence are key to achieving an adequate health status in adulthood. Malnutrition, in the forms of overweight and obesity, disproportionately occurs among vulnerable communities. The question is: How can cities develop strategies and policies to stablish and maintain healthy and sustainable school food systems? In Madrid, the Healthy and Sustainable Food Strategy started in 2018-22 with a revised phase 2022-25 for the promotion of healthy and sustainable policies. Within the public nursery system, local NGOs, food and nutrition researchers, the education department and city officials collaborated to develop healthy and sustainable menus and public food procurement. This collaborative practice can be useful to other European cities. Objective To describe the example of Madrid developing collaborative policies (e.g. public food procurement standards) and activities between city administration, civil society and academia (e.g. creation of school based Food Driving Groups) towards healthy and sustainable school food systems. Results We will share two specific sets of results: 1) Creation of school-based Food Driving Groups. 2) Establishment of public food procurement criteria. More results will be presented at the conference. Lessons Regarding school food procurement criteria, it is necessary to improve the knowledge of the different socio-environmental variables of food. The development of school-based Food Driving Groups as a fruitful and sustained collaboration is only possible with the education department leadership.

Public food procurement as a tool for more sustainable and high quality food offer in public institutions

Abstract As children spend almost a third of their day in kindergarten or school and consume a large part of their daily energy intake in educational environments, those environments are important factors in the development of healthy eating habits at one hand or unhealthy ones with possible consequence of childhood obesity on the other. Strong evidence of the importance of access to healthy and balanced nutrition in schools for children's health is available, and a nutritionally regulated school environment is associated with a lower risk of childhood obesity, which can also be facilitated by a transparent and quality-oriented procurement system. JRC has estimated the value of the European social food service market as sizeable in both reach and force of €82 billion. Progressive and targeted public procurement of food for health can reward food business operators who provide nutritionally balanced meals. According to the EU AP on childhood obesity 2014-2020, action such as use of nutritional criteria in food service procurement should be required in schools and kindergartens. JA Best-ReMaP situation analyses showed that current implementation of public food procurement across EU Member States differs substantially. Project activities aimed to support the establishment of the intersectoral working mechanisms (groups) for the public procurement of foods in participating MSs, to increase the understanding, knowledge and skills regarding public procurement of food/food products in public health and other selected public institutions, to pilot Slovene best practice tool for PFP as optional approach for implementation of the sustainable and high quality PFP procedures and to recommend further institutionalised implementation of the public procurement procedure for foods, based on quality standards, in the Member States and propose minimum criteria for sustainable public procurement, in line with the developments at the European Commission level.

The impact of sustainable public procurement on corporate ESG performance-The Chinese evidence.

Public procurement is an important bridge between public demand and market supply and may affect corporate behavior. However, in the advocacy of sustainable development, the extant research has rarely combined sustainable public procurement (SPP) with corporate ESG performance, to explore whether governments have contributed to the development of sustainable corporate performance through their sustainable procurement activities. This paper fills in the gap by matching the actual implementation of SPP of 42,369 projects in China over 2015~2020 with 20,125 corporate ESG performance data, to analyze the relationship between SPP implementation and corporate ESG performance. The results show that the implementation of SPP has a significant positive impact on corporate ESG performance. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that the impact is stronger in China's eastern and central regions than in other regions, and corporates at a mature stage are more likely to follow the government sustainable behavior. In addition, the implementation of SPP has a long-term effect on corporate ESG performance. The above findings have important policy implications: firstly, there is a better role for government to play as the "invisible hand", to participate in the market economy; Specifically, SPP policy should be added to government policy tool box to improve corporate ESG performance in addition to disclosure requirement, and the SPP policy employed should in particular attend to the "missing sectors" of sustainability in SPP for the good of corporate ESG; secondly, the government should implement differentiated policies tailored to the region's economic development conditions and corporate development characteristics; thirdly, a long-term evaluation mechanism should be established so that the government can play a more long-term demonstration and leading role.

Analysis of public food procurement in relation to dairy products and their quality criteria.

Public procurement of food is key to ensuring proper nutrition with high-quality products in public institutions such as schools and kindergartens. However, it should not be considered a mandatory expenditure from public finances but rather an investment in health promotion. A total of 1,126 public procurement orders processed by schools and kindergartens in Poland during the period from November 2022 to March 2023 were analyzed. Ultimately, 197 public procurement orders meeting the inclusion criteria were considered for analysis. Based on these orders, 2,753 food products classified as dairy and its derivatives were extracted. The ordered quantities of individual products were analyzed, as well as their descriptions (quality characteristics). Criteria related to composition were most commonly described, the most common criterion was the fat content and the absence of preservatives. On the second places were organoleptic characteristics, where taste and consistency expectations were most frequently specified. Sustainable public procurement criteria were the least frequently mentioned and were treated as highly marginal. Introducing minimum standards for the descriptions of dairy products in terms of organoleptic characteristics, composition features, and sustainability criteria will improve the quality of dairy products supplied to public institutions, particularly schools and kindergartens.

Towards an eco-welfare state: Enabling factors for transformative eco-social initiatives

In eco-welfare states, welfare provision must operate within planetary boundaries, entailing societal transformations and significant emission reductions. This article contributes to the research on sustainable welfare and eco-social policies by examining transformative and integrative eco-social initiatives that aim to reduce environmental impacts while also ensuring that public actors have the capacities to reach legally binding social outcomes and enhance social inclusion. Theoretically, we combine welfare state transformation research with the concepts of social-ecological systems, provisioning systems and transformative capacity. Our empirical cases in Finland include public actors promoting sustainable public procurement, a network of carbon-neutral municipalities, sustainable lifestyles accelerators at the household level, and carbon footprint calculators as a potential free-to-use technique that supports widespread carbon reductions. We apply a qualitative research design to investigate what kinds of factors are crucial in enhancing the transformative capacity of provisioning systems and how various factors in practice enable the eco-social initiatives to support the transformation towards an eco-welfare state. Our findings identify key enabling factors for transformative capacity: social networks, collaboration and participation; knowledge, learning and monitoring; shared policy frameworks and visions; and financial resources. These factors are interrelated and can be brought to bear in no particular sequence. The results offer valuable insights into how welfare state characteristics with democratically governed public actors may facilitate transformation.

Forecasting and Directions Regarding Sustainable Public Procurement

Forecasting and Directions Regarding Sustainable Public Procurement

Current Practices and Opportunities for More Sustainable Public Food Procurement: A Qualitative Study among Danish Municipalities and Regions.

Public food procurement has been emphasized as a powerful tool to promote a healthier and more sustainable food system, but there is still a long way to go to reach full potential. This study aimed to investigate practices and opportunities for sustainable and healthy public food procurement. A qualitative cross-sectional study was performed among Danish municipalities and regions stratified and randomly selected to cover standard practice (n = 17). In addition, interviews were performed among selected best-practice municipalities (n = 5) providing examples of ambitious goals and well-defined processes for obtaining sustainable food procurement. Large differences were observed in the cross-sectional analysis in relation to policy support and goals for sustainable food procurement, including organic purchase. Generally, there was a great attentiveness to reduce food waste and many valued the use of local food, especially among rural municipalities, whereas experience with climate impact reduction and shifts towards more plant-based menus was still in an early implementation stage. Results suggest a possible synergy effect between the use of organic food and efforts to reduce food waste and climate impact and emphasize the importance of local government policies to promote healthy and sustainable food procurement. Enabling factors to move sustainable food procurement forward are discussed.

Modeling Activities Related to Improving Energy Efficiency in the Public Procurement Process in Poland

The public procurement system in Poland remains highly centralized, although thanks to European Community directives, it is part of European law. Therefore, it has established procedures for sustainable public procurement, including so-called green public procurement. In addition to the Public Procurement Law of 11 September 2019, other provisions introducing specific instruments (e.g., energy labels, environmental labels) should be taken into consideration, as such provisions make it easier for contracting authorities to take environmental aspects into account in tender procedures. Bearing in mind the existing legal regulations, this article features a diagnosis of the degree of use of measures to improve energy efficiency in public procurement procedures and models activities related to improving this situation. For this purpose, surveys were conducted for 120 entities applying the provisions of the Public Procurement Law. Taking into consideration the results obtained in the survey, 15 factors related to the improvement of energy efficiency in tender procedures were selected with the help of 12 purposively selected experts connected with the issues raised in this article. Thanks to their expert knowledge, three key factors determining the wider use of this instrument were modeled by means of the systems theory–based methodology of network thinking. The paper also attempts to indicate the key factors determining the wider use of this instrument, using the network thinking methodology for this purpose. As a result of the conducted research, it was found that these factors include human capital, industry, and the energy crisis. Research on the subject in the Polish literature remains innovative and allows for the formulation of application recommendations for decision makers. The concept of energy efficiency in this paper refers to the ratio of the results obtained to the energy input. Efficient use of energy aims to reduce the amount of energy needed to deliver products and services.

Influence of Human Resource Capacity on the Implementation of Sustainable Public Procurement in Nyandarua County, Kenya

Influence of Human Resource Capacity on the Implementation of Sustainable Public Procurement in Nyandarua County, Kenya

Sustainable Public Procurement: a Bibliometric Survey

Purpose: This article aims to present the scientific production inherent to the subject of sustainable public procurement from documents surveyed in the Web of Science (WoS) database. Theoretical framework: the work was based on understanding how the public procurement theme is correlated with sustainability and how, in quantitative levels, the scientific production addresses this issue. Method/design/approach: The research was exploratory with a qualitative approach in which a structured mapping was performed, by means of the bibliometric method, on the scientific articles in WoS in the last five years. Results and conclusion: as a result of the research, it was analyzed that the authors with the highest production on the subject are not necessarily the most cited, with only one occurrence. Other results were a great diversity of theories/models used by the selected authors. And they were obtained with the help of the R Program - Bibliometrix. Research implications: the research makes explicit, through its results, both the relevance of the authors and the scientific production that these researchers are producing on sustainable public procurement. Another implication is the survey of the theories used for the studies on the theme. Originality/value: as this is an unprecedented study, the research sought to present to the scientific community the importance of what is currently being produced on the subject of sustainable public procurement, providing managers and researchers with the most current sources and main authors on the subject.

Sustainability public Procurement using new procedures of the 2014 Directives

It is common knowledge that the current directives on public contracts 2014/23/EU, 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU allow the use of award rules to foster sustainability. In particular, the main directive on public procurement, i.e. Directive 2014/24/EU, states that ‘this Directive clarifies how the contracting authorities can contribute to the protection of the environment and the promotion of sustainable development while ensuring that they can obtain the best value for money for their contracts’ (recital 91). It stems from it that this new ‘horizontal’ objective must be conciled with the core of public procurement rules, best value encapsulating free access to public contracts, equal access and transparency. In other words, there might be situations where those core principles may limit the use of public procurement for enhancing sustainability. Bearing in mind this potential conflict, can the new award procedures put in place in 2014 be an efficient tool to promote the sustainability objective? Here lies the question we propose to deal with in this article. One must first make clear what the expression of new award procedures covers since the 2014/24/EU directive does not refer to any ‘new procedures”. When it comes to novelties, it only refers to ‘new rules’ for cross border joint procurement (recital 72). But making no reference to any new procedures does not necessarily means that no new award procedure was introduced. Indeed, at least one may be ranked in this category. Strictly speaking, the only real new procedure introduced in 2014 is the innovation partnership. It is aimed ‘at the development of an innovative product, service or works and the subsequent purchase of the resulting supplies, services or works, provided that they correspond to the performance levels and maximum costs agreed between the contracting authorities and the participants’ (article 31.2 of directive 2014/24). ‘In the procurement documents, the contracting authority shall identify the need for an innovative product, service or works that cannot be met by purchasing products, services or works already available on the market. It shall indicate which elements of this description define the minimum requirements to be met by all tenders. The information provided shall be sufficiently precise to enable economic operators to identify the nature and scope of the required solution and decide whether to request to participate in the procedure’. There can be either just one or several partner in developing the innovative solutions (article 31.1 of directive 2014/24) (Cerqueira Gomes, 2021). However, two other procedures are relevant for the topic we are addressing: the competitive procedure with negotiation and the competitive dialogue. They actually existed before – the former under a different name – but they can be treated as new non just because their legal regimes have been slightly updated but because, and more importantly, the legal conditions set for their use have been considerably extended. For instance, under the 2004 directive, competitive dialogue was only allowed when a procurement contract was ‘particularly complex’ i.e. when contracting authorities where not objectively able to define the technical means capable of satisfying their needs or objectives, and/or were not objectively able to specify the legal and/or financial make-up of a project (article 1.11.c of Directive 2004/18/EU). Negotiated procedures, as they were then called, where allowed in a limited number of exceptional situations. Both procedures are now subject to the same conditions so widely drafted that they are very likely to be easily met in practice (article 26.4.a. of Directive 2014/24/EU) (Telles and Butler, 2021). The following reflections are based on the analysis of the text of the Directives, of the legal and economic literature regarding sustainable public procurement (SPP) and on a survey that the Chair on public contracts law is currently running1. This Chair uses on the field investigation methods (interviews, online surveys) in order to assess the impact of public contracts rules on the actual purchasing practice. We will first analyse why these new procedures could have been a good tool for sustainable public procurement and then why this has not the case before drawing some conclusions.

Sustainable public procurement and constrained agricultural entrepreneurship

<abstract> <p>This paper analyzes the relevance of green public procurement (GPP) in boosting the transition to more sustainable and innovative regional and localized agrifood systems. Many scholars have emphasized the importance of the GPP in stimulating various positive effects and impacts on the sustainability of agrifood systems. Framed within the context of the sustainable competitiveness of localized agrifood systems, the GPP represents an excellent opportunity for a more sustainable farming sector. If well exploited, it may relaunch smallholder farms' competitiveness on a regional scale. Moreover, the GPP effectively addresses sustainability issues like fighting food insecurity and reducing food waste. The possibility of adhering to these localized modes of food provisioning engenders constrained rural entrepreneurship due to the regulatory system which mandates compliance by the farming sector. The paper provides an empirical analysis of the region Lazio of Italy to evidence the eventual propensity of regional farms and eventual entry barriers. The results of the analysis show, on the one side, high interest primarily within regional organic farms; on the other side, the results evidence that compliance with mandatory regulation and organizational and logistic assets represent the principal limit to exploit this opportunity fully. Consequently, reduced exploitation of this opportunity is translated into a rate of transition to more sustainable regional farming systems.</p> </abstract>

Promoting Sustainable Public Procurement Through Economic Policy Tools: From Moral Suasion to Nudging

As the climate crisis accelerates and governments aspire to achieve more circular economies, this article encourages experimentation with innovative, interdisciplinary, and sustainable approaches that exploit governments’ enormous spending power. Rather than waiting for legislative or regulatory changes, the article advocates driving sustainable public procurement (SPP) through efficient and available behavioral-economics-inspired “green defaults,” nudging, persuading procurement officials, and, more broadly, rethinking the value proposition when confronted with price premiums.

How Will the Adoption of Mandatory GPP Criteria Change the Game?

With the 2003 Communication on Integrated Product Policy, the European Commission started focusing more on ‘greening’ Member States’ public procurement law, by encouraging the adoption of National Action Plans (NAPs). Subsequently, with the 2008 Communication, green public procurement (GPP) criteria were developed. Since then, the Commission has developed more than 20 standard GPP criteria, which are currently applied voluntarily. Recently, the EU Commission indicated that they are working on mandating GPP criteria and several legislative proposals are foreseeing the setup of mandatory EU GPP criteria for all Member States. Some domestic legislations have already introduced mandatory GPP criteria. In particular, the Italian legislator followed up the Commission’s initiative on NAPs, and adopted mandatory minimum environmental criteria (MECs) for 18 purchasing categories. This article aims to describe and compare the evolution of GPP criteria in the EU and Italy to illustrate and anticipate possible outcomes for the forthcoming mandatory GPP at the EU level. By doing so, the paper emphasises the prominent role played by the Italian Council of State in ensuring the mandatory minimum for environmental criteria in Italian law. Finally, it argues that the Italian approach, which uses the ineffectiveness of the contract as a general and well-established remedy, has proven successful in ensuring the enforcement of MECs. Keywords: GPP criteria; sustainable public procurement; mandatory minimum environmental criteria; Italian public procurement law; ineffectiveness of public contract