Greener Public Purchasing as an Environmental Policy Instrument

Abstract

Governments increasingly include environmental criteria in their purchasing decisions. For example, purchasing guidelines often require that particular products contain a minimum amount of recycled content or achieve specified levels of energy efficiency. Guidelines may also favour – through price preferences, explicit set-asides, or other mechanisms – suppliers who exceed official pollution standards, abide by environmental frameworks...

Government green procurement spillovers: Evidence from municipal building policies in California

“…First, government is an especially large customer in the real estate market. According to Marron (2003), 26 percent of all spending on "maintenance and repair construction" comes from federal, state, and local government. 9 Second, builders can realize direct benefits from green investments that produce energy savings or that increase tenants' willingness to pay (Eichholtz, Kok, and Quigley 2010).…”

“…These procurement policies often have the stated goals of encouraging cost-reducing innovation among suppliers and spurring private demand for green products (Brander et al 2003;Marron 2003). The European Union, for example, justifies its environmental procurement policy not only on the basis of leveraging government demand to "create or enlarge markets for environmentally friendly products and services" but also on the basis of stimulating "the use of green standards in private procurement" (Commission of the European Communities 2008: 2).…”

“…Michelsen and de Boer (2009) and Sourani and Sohail (2011) identify both the barriers to implementing green building procurement policies and the capabilities that can overcome those barriers. Marron (1997) and Marron (2003) describe the potential impacts of government green procurement policies.…”

The Impact of Subsidies on the Prevalence of Climate-Sensitive Residential Buildings in Malaysia

“…Procurement policies by federal, state and municipal governments can not only directly increase demand for particular goods and services but can also be designed to encourage private sector participation [110]. Indeed, there is evidence that government procurement overcomes coordination failure in green building markets, when initial investment in green building capabilities seems risky without evidence of demand [111].…”

Public Procurement and the Private Supply of Green Buildings

“…In the U.S., federal and many state agencies have incorporated environmental attributes in their procurement policies for decades, and government green procurement policies are especially prevalent in Europe where they are promoted by the European Commission. Beyond directly increasing government-sector demand, some public procurement policies seek to spur private demand (Marron 2003) or to spark cost-reducing innovation among suppliers (Brander et al 2003). The European Union, for example, justifies its environmental procurement policy not only on the basis of leveraging government demand to "create or enlarge markets for environmentally friendly products and services" but also on the basis of stimulating "the use of green standards in private procurement" (Commission of the European Communities 2008: 2).…”