Sentences to ponder [Green Public Procurement]
On the tail of Albert's comment earlier today and Abby Semple's from a couple of weeks ago:
"Politicians expect green public procurement (GPP) to serve as an environmental policy instrument. However, in order for GPP to work as an effective policy instrument, it is important to take into consideration potential suppliers’ decisions to participate in the procurement process, the total number of bidders, and the screening of bidders with respect to mandatory green criteria. The aim of this paper is to empirically study GPP in this respect. The analysis presented here is based on data from Swedish cleaning service procurements that are unique in that they contain very detailed information on various environmental standards set by the contracting authorities. We find at best only a weak effect on supplier behavior, and this suggests that the use of GPP in this situation does not live up to its political expectations."
By Sofia Lundberg and her co-authors. Ungated version of paper here.
I suspect this is not the final say about the efficiency of green measures in public procurement, but as far as good empirical (ie, quantitative *and* data driven...) research goes, it is a start. More, please.
Hat tip to Robert Agren.