Development of sustainability in public sector procurement

Abstract

Public organizations are increasingly adding environmental and social aspects in their strategic agendas. This paper focuses on the actors and factors that influence the speed of implementation of sustainability initiatives. Four healthcare organizations in The Netherlands were studied. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with top management, budget owners and procurement professionals. Although top management assigned strategic importance to sustainability initiatives, budget owners had the final say in implementation. Procurement professionals had very little influence on the implementation process of sustainability.

Sustainable Public Procurement—External Forces and Accountability

“…Notwithstanding this reciprocal relationship, there remains a paucity of research on external actors participating and influencing public sector sustainability [12].…”

“…These studies stress the importance of cooperation within the supply chain and with non-business actors such as NGOs and labelling organizations. Continuous interaction between external and internal actors and factors also has an impact on developing sustainable public procurement [12]. Public organizations influence markets and are in their own way influenced by external actors, by generating pressure on policy development [23].…”

“…The extent to which public procurement is moving towards sustainability and can be held accountable, depends on a great diversity of actors and factors. These actors and factors drive or hinder sustainability development and can be found in many studies on sustainable public procurement [5,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

“…Some prominent factors include: institutional tardiness [5], resistance to change [18], omission of organizational targets, lack of procurement professionalism [10,12], knowledge and skills of sustainability [19], commitment by civil servants [18], and financial constraints [20]. As sustainable procurement procedures require adoption by purchasing employees and executive managers, support by the city council is needed [21].…”

Governance in Maritime Passenger Transport: Green Public Procurement of Ferry Services

“…The procurer, however, can hold many different traits. Gelderman et al [54] emphasize three actor groups as particularly central in shaping public procurement: the institutional top management, procurement professionals, and budget owners. Testa et al [27,55] therefore call for a determined public administration with sufficient awareness and competence of procurement on all levels and greater awareness and (legal, economic, and technical) training throughout procuring organizations.…”