Green training for sustainable procurement? Insights from the Brazilian public sector

Abstract

Findings -According to the results' analysis, the impact of sustainable procurement practices among the public organizations analysed were almost void. The environmental training produced limited accomplishments, although respondents viewed it as a source of potential improvement, which indicates a co-evolution of sustainable procurement, environmental training and environmental maturity. In the cases analyzed, an alignment was identified among the levels of sustainable procurement and environmental training adoption.Research limitations/implications -It was identified that the lacks of training and support from senior management, environmental culture, great bureaucracy and economic factors were considered barriers and difficulties to implementing environmental procurement practices. These barriers deserve further study.Originality and value -There is a lack of research on the relationship between environmental training and the adoption of sustainable procurement in emerging economies and in public sector organizations.

Environmentally Responsible Behavior and Sustainability Policy Adoption in Green Public Procurement

“…Pivotal in the implementation of state-run policies, sustainable public procurement is a mechanism for environmental protection in addition to economic and social development, by encompassing green, economic, and social standards in organizations' hiring stages, and being crucial in preparing managers and government officials to exigently assess purchases [63]. Public authorities must make the contract public, bring to completion a standard procurement operation, handle bids in the qualification and selection phases in conformity with pre-established standards, and award the contract as indicated by specific guidelines, all while complying with binding time frames.…”

Green Public Procurement in the Academic Literature

“…At the same time, the authors urge further research related to the barriers in the GPP domain, such as training and support, bureaucracy, culture (Aragão and Jabbour, 2017), cultural, social, and institutional barriers (Zhu et al, 2013).…”

Key factors hindering sustainable procurement in the Brazilian public sector: A Delphi study

“…Therefore, it is required that public procurers change their regular procurement behavior [7], seeking to integrate equally all sustainability pillars into organizational strategies [11]. This is indispensable given the scale of PPs [8], [52], that allows the Government to employ its purchasing power to influence buyers and sellers [5], [16], [26], [37], [53] towards a more sustainable society. According to [50], some of the benefits provided by SPP practices are the transformation of markets, job creation, monetary economy, and protection of natural resources.…”

“…Government purchases from Brazil comprise about 10-15% of the country's GDP each year, representing a billion dollar market [37], [38]. However, there is a critical lack of SPP studies in the Brazilian context [38], whose field of knowledge has been considered less structured than in other nations [39].…”