IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/epolin/v45y2018i1d10.1007_s40812-017-0085-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Green public procurement and multiple environmental objectives

Author

Listed:
  • Sofia Lundberg

    (Umeå School of Business and Economics at Umeå University)

  • Per-Olov Marklund

    (The National Institute of Economic Research (NIER))

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Sofia Lundberg & Per-Olov Marklund, 2018. "Green public procurement and multiple environmental objectives," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 45(1), pages 37-53, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:epolin:v:45:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s40812-017-0085-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s40812-017-0085-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40812-017-0085-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40812-017-0085-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Testa, Francesco & Iraldo, Fabio & Frey, Marco & Daddi, Tiberio, 2012. "What factors influence the uptake of GPP (green public procurement) practices? New evidence from an Italian survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 88-96.
    2. Yeon-Koo Che, 1993. "Design Competition through Multidimensional Auctions," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 24(4), pages 668-680, Winter.
    3. Bergman, Mats A. & Johansson, Per & Lundberg, Sofia & Spagnolo, Giancarlo, 2016. "Privatization and quality: Evidence from elderly care in Sweden," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 109-119.
    4. Sofia Lundberg & Per-Olov Marklund & Elon Strömbäck, 2016. "Is Environmental Policy by Public Procurement Effective?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 44(4), pages 478-499, July.
    5. Sofia Lundberg & Per-Olov Marklund & Elon Strömbäck & David Sundström, 2015. "Using public procurement to implement environmental policy: an empirical analysis," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 17(4), pages 487-520, October.
    6. Tarantini, Mario & Loprieno, Arianna Dominici & Porta, Pier Luigi, 2011. "A life cycle approach to Green Public Procurement of building materials and elements: A case study on windows," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 2473-2482.
    7. Martin L. Weitzman, 1974. "Prices vs. Quantities," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(4), pages 477-491.
    8. Donald B. Marron, 1997. "Buying Green: Government Procurement as an Instrument of Environmental Policy," Public Finance Review, , vol. 25(3), pages 285-305, May.
    9. Parikka-Alhola, Katriina, 2008. "Promoting environmentally sound furniture by green public procurement," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1-2), pages 472-485, December.
    10. Jothi Basu, R. & Bai, Ruibin & Palaniappan, PL.K., 2015. "A strategic approach to improve sustainability in transportation service procurement," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 152-168.
    11. Takeshi Nishimura, 2015. "Optimal design of scoring auctions with multidimensional quality," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 19(2), pages 117-143, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abderahman Rejeb & Karim Rejeb & Yasanur Kayikci & Andrea Appolloni & Horst Treiblmaier, 2024. "Mapping the knowledge domain of green procurement: a review and bibliometric analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(12), pages 30027-30061, December.
    2. Elvira Molin & Michael Martin & Anna Björklund, 2021. "Addressing Sustainability within Public Procurement of Food: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-21, December.
    3. Bryngemark, Elina & Söderholm, Patrik & Thörn, Martina, 2023. "The adoption of green public procurement practices: Analytical challenges and empirical illustration on Swedish municipalities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    4. George Lăzăroiu & Luminița Ionescu & Cristian Uță & Iulian Hurloiu & Mihai Andronie & Irina Dijmărescu, 2020. "Environmentally Responsible Behavior and Sustainability Policy Adoption in Green Public Procurement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-12, March.
    5. Donghun Yoon, 2023. "The Improvement Policy Design of Public Procurement Process for the Public Management Innovation in South Korea," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, March.
    6. Lindström, Hanna & Lundberg, Sofia & Marklund, Per-Olov, 2020. "How Green Public Procurement can drive conversion of farmland: An empirical analysis of an organic food policy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    7. Michiel Zijp & Erik Dekker & Mara Hauck & Arjan De Koning & Marijn Bijleveld & Janot Tokaya & Elias De Valk & Anne Hollander & Leo Posthuma, 2022. "Measuring the Effect of Circular Public Procurement on Government’s Environmental Impact," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-14, August.
    8. Sašo Matas & Žan Jan Oplotnik & Timotej Jagrič, 2025. "Can We Have Both? The Challenges of Efficiency Outcomes in a Public Procurement System and Reaching the Strategic Goals of Procurement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-20, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sofia Lundberg & Per-Olov Marklund & Elon Strömbäck & David Sundström, 2015. "Using public procurement to implement environmental policy: an empirical analysis," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 17(4), pages 487-520, October.
    2. Strömbäck, Elon, 2015. "Policy by Public Procurement: Opportunities and Pitfalls," Umeå Economic Studies 915, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    3. Ionela Corina Chersan & Valentin Florentin Dumitru & Cãtãlina Gorgan & Vasile Gorgan, 2020. "Green Public Procurement in the Academic Literature," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 22(53), pages 1-82, February.
    4. Sofia Lundberg & Per-Olov Marklund & Elon Strömbäck, 2016. "Is Environmental Policy by Public Procurement Effective?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 44(4), pages 478-499, July.
    5. Lindström, Hanna & Lundberg, Sofia & Marklund, Per-Olov, 2021. "Green Public Procurement: An empirical analysis of the uptake of organic food policy," Umeå Economic Studies 997, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    6. Yanlin Ma & Yuting Liu & Andrea Appolloni & Junqi Liu, 2021. "Does green public procurement encourage firm's environmental certification practice? The mediation role of top management support," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(3), pages 1002-1017, May.
    7. Pierre-Henri Morand & François Maréchal, 2021. "Are social and environmental clauses a tool for favoritism? Analysis of French public procurement contracts ," Post-Print hal-03418572, HAL.
    8. Lindström, Hanna & Lundberg, Sofia & Marklund, Per-Olov, 2020. "How Green Public Procurement can drive conversion of farmland: An empirical analysis of an organic food policy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    9. Rodrigo Lozano & Felippe Santos & Maria Barreiro-Gen, 2024. "Developing a harmonic sustainable public procurement framework," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 2291-2306, January.
    10. Brusselaers, Jan & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido & Buysse, Jeroen, 2017. "Green Public Procurement of Certified Wood: Spatial Leverage Effect and Welfare Implications," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 91-102.
    11. Maréchal, François & Morand, Pierre-Henri, 2022. "Are social and environmental clauses a tool for favoritism? Analysis of French public procurement contracts," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    12. Sundström, David, 2016. "A Comparison of Techniques to Evaluate Policies in Public Procurement," Umeå Economic Studies 928, Umeå University, Department of Economics, revised 17 Jun 2016.
    13. Awaya, Yu & Fujiwara, Naoki & Szabo, Marton, 2025. "Quality and price in scoring auctions," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    14. Chunling Yu & Toru Morotomi & Haiping Yu, 2020. "What Influences Adoption of Green Award Criteria in a Public Contract? An Empirical Analysis of 2018 European Public Procurement Contract Award Notices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-20, February.
    15. Pelša Inese, 2019. "Green Public Procurement: Case Study of Latvian Municipalities," Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 33(1), pages 207-221, January.
    16. Chandel, Shivangi & Sarkar, Shubhro, 2023. "Corruption in multidimensional procurement auctions under asymmetry," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    17. Jorge González Chapela, 2019. "Weight Values, Scoring Rules and Abnormally Low Tenders Criteria in Multidimensional Procurement: Effects on Price," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 228(1), pages 55-81, March.
    18. Peter Džupka & Matúš Kubák & Peter Nemec, 2020. "Sustainable Public Procurement in Central European Countries. Can It Also Bring Savings?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-13, November.
    19. Gregory Lewis & Patrick Bajari, 2011. "Procurement Contracting With Time Incentives: Theory and Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(3), pages 1173-1211.
    20. Patrik Hall & Karl Löfgren & Gregory Peters, 2016. "Greening the Street-Level Procurer: Challenges in the Strongly Decentralized Swedish System," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 39(4), pages 467-483, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental policy; Organic food; Public contracts; Public procurement; Purchasing; Sustainable procurement; Tinbergen rule;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
    • H57 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Procurement
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:epolin:v:45:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s40812-017-0085-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.