Sustainable procurement: Building legitimacy in the supply network

A field-level examination of the adoption of sustainable procurement in the social housing sector

“…In line with corporate interest in sustainability it is becoming a popular area of academic research in the management domain (Crespin-Mazet and Dontenwill, 2012;Walker and Jones, 2012;Meehan and Bryde, 2014). Procurement plays a key role in delivering sustainable outcomes through creating, developing, controlling and sustaining the links between organisations and their supply chains to avoid commitments that are only "superficial and non-compulsory" (Hassini, Surti and Searcy, 2012, p.69).…”

Embending Sustainability Dynamics in the Lean Construction Supply Chain Management

“…The choice of suppliers/subcontractors is critical in the implementation of a sustainable sourcing strategy [33] (p. 207). The focal companies can do the followings for the supplier/ subcontractor appointment/assignment:…”

“…in-house guidelines; environmental management systems such as ISO 14001; social standards such as; SA 8000 or AA 1000; and company's own code of conduct) need to be determined in the relationships to business partners, so that company's understanding of development is reflected to the supply chain the placing such requirements on suppliers/subcontractors who are required to pass them on in their own supply chains [4] (p. 1058-1059) • Environmental and social values need to be considered in addition to economic ones that will help the organization achieve its overall goals in a profitable and sustainable manner. [34] (p. 258) • Suppliers'/subcontractors' carbon management performance need to be analysed [29] (p. 1222) • Purchasers need to go beyond financial metrics and to monitor new sets of risks such as employees' security, pollution, and waste of resources [64], [33] (p.208).…”

“…These barriers might include: suppliers' lack of technical know-how to comply with sustainability requirements [8]; suppliers' lack the financial means to invest in green initiatives [8]; enforcing unreasonable contracts on small suppliers obstacling their stay in business [8] (p. 139); risks arising due to the implementation of sustainable procurement [64], [33] (p. 207); conflicts among companies in the same SC upon launching new sustainability-oriented activities [7] (p. 549); the consumers' unwillingness/reluctance-to-pay for sustainability efforts [65], [66], [62] (p. 74); high initial buyer and supplier investment costs associated with adapting SSM [34] (p. 267); cost issues and economic uncertainty." [34] (p. 267); rising transaction costs due to embedding environmental standards in the purchasing criteria [46], [44] and the difficulty in developing and managing environmental specifications [44], [46]; suppliers' reluctance in environmental upgrading due to fuziness in the sufficient business rationale for investing in environmental upgrading."…”

“…achievement of the economic success of a company's supply chain due to complying with environmental and social standards [4], [81]) for their investment decisions in their strategic plans. The companies can be encouraged in their strategic plans to invest in enhancing the sustainability of their supply chain management due to the various drivers including: government regulation [86], [34] (p.262); financial benefits [34] (p. 262); desire to gain competitive advantage [33], [34] (p. 262), [87]; customers' demand [8] (p. 134); [34] (p. 262); demand for environmental protection [88] (p. 577); desire to reduce costs through minimization of waste and pollution [87]; return of investments in environmental upgrading [10] (p. 81); differentiation for the brand with the help of embedding sustainability into brand knowledge and brand value [85] (p. 287); prevention of loss of reputation that might arise from insufficient environmental and social problems [9] (p. 118), [76] (p. 232), [77], [78], [79] and lacking social standards at suppliers [80]. [4] (p. 1055).…”