Green public procurement and multiple environmental objectives

Abstract

Policy makers can employ different instruments to address environmental policy objectives, and the guiding principles for a consistent system of environmental policy are (1) the policies should be effective, (2) there should be one objective per instrument, and (3) multiple objectives and multiple policy instruments must be mutually independent of each other. This paper evaluates these three principles for green public procurement (GPP). As an illustrative example, the analysis refers to the Swedish policy of using public purchase of organic foods as a policy instrument to increase the certified organic agricultural area as a share of the total agricultural area. Our analysis shows that GPP fails to satisfy principles (1) and (3), and the only way to satisfy principle (2) is then to have just one objective with the procurement, i.e., to run the operations. GPP might still have a positive environmental impact, but, if applied, the procuring authority has to be very specific with the one-to-one matching of criterion and objective.

Environmentally Responsible Behavior and Sustainability Policy Adoption in Green Public Procurement

“…To be successful, green policy tools should be planned so that they are tested as circumscribed to the starting point of the environmental issues as possible. The permanence of market non-performances stimulates the harnessing of green policies whose goal is to remedy such indications of resource decreasing and to offset the rectification between upsides and expenses that entails establishing adequate green purposes (the benefits) and identifying practical policy procedures to attain the aims (the costs) for the purpose of increasing welfare as regards green, social, and economic sustainability [66]. Environmental consciousness can have a subsequent impact on purchase intention through perceived behavioral control [67].…”

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production – Potential Benefits and Impacts on Forests and Livelihoods

“…In recent academic discourses, SPP has been discussed in the framework of green public procurement (Lundberg and Marklund 2018). The need for scientific evidence on effects of SPP to support decision-making on SPP schemes in relation to forest sectors has been emphasised (Cerutti et al 2018).…”

Public procurement as strategy to foster organic transition: insights from the Brazilian experience

“…In recent years, different countries have implemented policies for fostering more environmentally-friendly production and consumption of food, and a common feature among different experiences is the use of public procurement as a tool to achieve this goal (Løes and Nölting, 2011; Sambuichi et al ., 2014; Sabourin et al ., 2017; Lundberg and Marklund, 2018). However, there is still a dearth of studies in which the effectiveness of these policies in fostering organic production among an increasing number of farm families and over increasingly larger territories (i.e., scaling-out) has been assessed.…”

“…While we do not question the importance of establishing an institutional framework (e.g., institutional markets, research funding, and policies) for supporting a scaling-up of organic agriculture, the use of public procurement with price incentives to create demand for organic foods has yet to be shown to have much impact on increasing production of organic food at the local level and among small-holder farmers (Sambuichi et al ., 2014; Braun et al ., 2018; Lundberg and Marklund, 2018).…”