Understanding Sustainable Public Procurement

This book explores the development of sustainable public procurement (SPP) as a strategic policy instrument to support decoupling of economic growth from environmental degradation and enhancing social well-being. Offering an in-depth case study of India’s SPP implementation trajectory, it discusses the challenges of integrating sustainability criteria into purchasing decisions, and examines policy choices and best practices to address them. It investigates the legislative, institutional, and governance framework for SPP in India, and identifies priority actions to accelerate wider uptake of SPP policy and practices. Furthermore, the book highlights the evolving role of SPP policies in response to emerging global mega trends, such as international trade, low carbon economy, circular economy, and Industry 4.0. Given its scope, this book appeals to scholars of economics, public administration, and environmental and social sciences, as well as to policymakers, practitioners, and advocates interested in steering transformational changes towards mainstreaming sustainable procurement practices in developing economies at the desired scale. "This book comes at the right time to compensate for the lack of in-depth works on the origins, nature and reality of the implementation of sustainable purchases.” - Farid Yaker, Programme Officer, Sustainable Public Procurement, Economy Division, UNEP, Paris, France. “...If you are a procurement or sustainability professional anywhere in the world, please read this book. It will change the way you think and feel about your profession.” - Shaun McCarthy OBE, Chair, Supply Chain Sustainability School, London, UK & Director, Action Sustainability, London, UK

The worldwide consumption of resources is causing environmental damage at a rate that cannot be sustained. Apart from the resulting environmental and health problems, this trend could threaten economic growth due to rapidly decreasing natural resources and the cost of addressing these issues. The public sector has a responsibility to stimulate the marketplace in favor of the provision of more resource-efficient and less polluting goods, services, and works in order to support environmental and wider sustainable development objectives. Green Public Procurement Strategies for Environmental Sustainability provides innovative insights on the adoption and implementation of green public procurement for sustainable practice in order to contribute to environmental protection. The content within this publication examines climate change, sustainable development, and document analysis and is designed for policymakers, environmentalists, managers, suppliers, development agencies, government officials, academicians, researchers, students, and professionals.

This working paper describes a methodology for how Sustainable Public Procurement links with the Sustainable Development Goals. The methodology was used to describe 17 cases for each of the sustainable development goals in the report 'Sustainable Public procurement and the Sustainable Development Goals'.

With governments responsible for significant portions of national spending, the promise of including sustainability considerations into that spending can enable policy makers to lead by example with sustainable public procurement (SPP). The report examines the state of sustainable public procurement policies and practices being undertaken by national governments worldwide in the last five years. The research included a comprehensive literature and desktop review, 19 interviews, six country case studies and a survey of 273 SPP experts worldwide. The objective was to create a baseline analysis that examines the evolving field of SPP and the drivers, barriers, needs and opportunities in SPP.

Public Procurement accounts for 6.5 trillion euros annually and plays a fundamental role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. All public services and functions depend on public procurement to be delivered. This report aims to draw attention to the “added value” that sustainable public procurement can contribute towards these goals, directly or indirectly, going beyond delivering core public sector objectives. The report establishes clear linkages between Sustainable Public Procurement and the SDG targets, and aims to validate those linkages with specific and real-life case studies from Nordic settings.

In recent decades, sustainability has become a goal to be achieved throughout the world; it is a direction into which efforts are to be put to solve the global challenges that people are facing today. The spectrum of Sustainable Goals is extensive and wide, ranging from poverty reduction, to human rights and equality of opportunity, and to environmental issues, such as biodiversity conservation, energy efficiency, climate mitigation and adaptation, and waste reduction (see, among others, UNEP, 2017 and UNOPS, 2017). The concept of sustainability has emerged since the 1970s. Today, it has become a crucial paradigm in supply chain management (SCM) (Seuring and Müller, 2008) and is also the foundation for one of the most significant international cooperation initiatives (i.e. the agenda for Sustainable Development Goals 2030), which explicitly highlights procurement as an effective way to support the achievement of sustainable objectives. Indeed, a variety of activities and processes have been substantially influenced and involved, and “procurement” is one of them.

This book evaluates the 2014 EU public procurement law reform from a sustainability perspective.

Procurement is playing an increasingly strategic role as a lever for sustainable development and social and environmental responsibility. Greater regulation on sustainable procurement in the public sector, including significant changes to the EU Directive in April 2014, are driving this change.This comprehensive guide to sustainable procurement by practising legal experts Colleen Theron and Malcolm Dowden distils key developments in EU and UK public sustainable procurement legislation, government guidance and policy; provides an introduction to sustainable procurement more broadly; provides case studies and practical examples on contractual aspects of procurement; shows you how to set up a sustainable procurement strategy; and contributes to the development of sustainable procurement policy. There is also increased emphasis on "clean" supply chains in the private sector, as best practice seeks to mesh with public sector requirements and reduce the risk that bids for public contracts might be undermined by adverse environmental impacts or social misconduct along the supply chain.Private sector companies should act now to establish best practice sustainable procurement principles to minimize the risk of litigation; several international standards are embedding the principles of sustainable procurement into their requirements.The book also offers practical examples of what sustainable procurement entails, whether the organization is bidding for public sector contracts, in need of meeting tender requirements, looking to obtain certification for a standard, or is simply seeking to improve its supply chain management and implement best practice.