Information drought ‘impeding take-up of green procurement’

Some
local governments struggle to implement green purchasing policies because of a
lack of baseline/assessment of such procurement policies in the public sector.

According
to a new University of New South Wales (UNSW) Business School report, municipalities
that track their green purchasing policies are more likely to elevate the
importance of green purchasing in their routines and practices.

The
report defines green purchasing policies as a set of activities undertaken by
an organisation to implement purchasing that reduces negative effects on the
environment (eg, waste generation).

To learn
more about sustainable procurement policy implementation in local governments,
researchers from UNSW and the Arizona State University’s (ASU) Sustainable Purchasing
Research Initiative (SPRI) surveyed finance, procurement, waste management and
other professionals in sustainability-related positions across 160
municipalities.

Just
over 60 percent of respondents reported that their municipalities had green procurement
policies, with 39 percent reporting no policy – evidence that there is still
more to be done.

In this
respect, the report says the intervention of state and federal governments is
necessary to foment the adoption and implementation of green purchasing
practices across the Australian public sector.

Based on
these findings and their review of prior work in the procurement area,
researchers have developed seven recommendations aimed at increasing
municipalities’ green purchasing policy adoption and implementation success:

• Build on complementary policies and practices;
• Use information about environmentally preferred products such as those that receive eco-label certifications.
• Utilise e-procurement systems that integrate environmental product information
• Track spending related to green purchases
• Enhance collaborative vendor relationships
• Foster a culture for innovation; and
• Participate in professional networks to share

The Advancing Green Purchasing in Australian Municipalities report is available for download.