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1 – 3 of 3Annukka Berg, Katriina Alhola, Juha Peltomaa and Satu Tietari
Public procurement is a major driving force that can be used to advance societal goals such as sustainability. The lack of strategic management and top-level commitment have been…
Abstract
Purpose
Public procurement is a major driving force that can be used to advance societal goals such as sustainability. The lack of strategic management and top-level commitment have been found to be major hindrances to the promotion of sustainable public procurement (SPP). This study aims to examine the functioning of a successful Finnish SPP development programme, the KEINO Academy (2019–2020), that tackled these challenges in a holistic way.
Design/methodology/approach
The article is mainly based on qualitative analysis of interviews with 24 municipal representatives.
Findings
The KEINO Academy advanced SPP management through the following functions: legitimising SPP development work, structuring SPP development work, offering expert support and facilitating peer support. The functions were mainly able to meet the key challenges experienced by the participating municipalities. However, some challenges cannot be directly solved by an intermediary such as the KEINO Academy. These challenges include, for example, a lack of resources.
Social implications
On the basis of the study, SPP development programmes should: build a holistic working model; respect the versatility of the participating organisations; involve all the key people in the organisations, including the directors; and sustain change.
Originality/value
The main theoretical contribution is the combination of two streams of literature, those of SPP management and intermediary functions. Further, the article makes an empirical contribution by studying the KEINO Academy as a pioneering SPP development case.
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Keywords
Katriina Alhola and Ari Nissinen
The purpose of this study is to promote clean technology development and diffusion through public procurement. Finland is ranked high among the countries that develop clean…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to promote clean technology development and diffusion through public procurement. Finland is ranked high among the countries that develop clean technology innovations. Innovative public procurement could be one means to boost the diffusion of such technologies. However, this potential is still somewhat unexploited, as innovative public procurement is an unsystematic method of procuring in Finland and the EU, partly because of an inability to understand innovation potential in the market and to implement innovative procurement.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors illustrate how cleantech aspects can be integrated into the public procurement process. The authors study the key success factors and conditions that have led to a successful cleantech procurement process by exploring realized cases of innovative public clean technology procurement.
Findings
The results suggest that innovative public procurement, in which clean technology is an integrated part, may occur in different forms, from a procurement of a highly improved product or solution to a product-service system or a collaborative symbiosis system. Life cycle consideration, strategic commitment and recognition of needs of the procuring unit were prioritized as the most important factors leading to successful integration of cleantech aspects into procurement process.
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Katriina Parikka-Alhola and Ari Nissinen
The “most economically advantageous tender,” as defined in the EUʼs public procurement directives, allows public purchasers to combine environmental aspects, price and other award…
Abstract
The “most economically advantageous tender,” as defined in the EUʼs public procurement directives, allows public purchasers to combine environmental aspects, price and other award criteria in decision making. The directives do not, however, determine how the environmental criteria should be built. Indeed, there could be different means to assess the “greenness” of competing tenders, and these various measurements of environmental impacts may lead to different assessments of the most economically advantageous tender. In this article, the determination of environmental award criteria is examined through a case study on a purchase of a goods transportation service, where the most economically advantageous tender is calculated by life cycle assessment and the environmental cost calculation method suggested by the EU, and compared to the results gained by the purchaserʼs equation. Also the contribution of the weighting for the “green” purchasing decision is discussed.