Supply Chain Management: An International Journal

Addressing sustainable development through public procurement: the case of local government
Lutz Preuss,
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 Research paper

Addressing sustainable development through

public procurement: the case of local
government
Lutz Preuss
School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK

Abstract
Purpose – While the contribution of supply chain management to sustainability is receiving increasing attention in the private sector, there is still a
scarcity of parallel studies of public procurement. Hence the purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which local government authorities in
England use their procurement function to foster sustainable development.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses an exploratory approach. Based on a review of the existing literature, qualitative research into
leading local government authorities is undertaken to draw out the multiple ways in which public procurement can support sustainable development.
Findings – At an aggregate level, local government procurers have adopted a wide range of initiatives to address all three aspects of sustainability.
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These are condensed into a typology of sustainable supply chain management for the public sector.
Research limitations/implications – The study highlights the importance of supporting factors, like transparency, organisational culture and strategy
as well as leeway in public policy, for sustainable supply chain management in the public sector.
Practical implications – The experience of the best practice local authorities deserves wider recognition among practitioners, policy makers and
academic researchers, not least given the objective of the UK government to be among the leaders in the European Union on sustainable procurement
by 2009.
Originality/value – The proposed typology of sustainable supply chain management for the public sector can serve as a basis for future research in
this area.

Keywords Sustainable development, Local government, Public sector organizations, England

Paper type Research paper

Introduction development and waste disposal in the case of UK local

The challenges of sustainable development are increasingly
being addressed by supply chain management (SCM)
practitioners and researchers (Sarkis, 2001; Svensson, 2007;
Carter and Rogers, 2008; Seuring and Müller, in press).
Within this body of research, this article focuses on the role of
public procurement in bringing about sustainability, in
particular on the procurement function of local government
authorities in England. The potential contribution of public
sector procurement to sustainability is evident in the size of its
expenditure. In the UK all levels of government taken
together consume 18 per cent of GDP; in the USA the figure
stands at 14 per cent (OECD, 2000). The public sector is also
responsible for providing a range of services many of which
have direct implications for sustainability, such as economic
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1359-8546.htm
government (Wilson and Game, 2006). Last but not least,
public procurement could make use of its purchasing power
to develop markets for more sustainable products that
otherwise might not emerge (Erdmenger, 2003).
Recognising these impacts, the UK government set itself the
target to become a leader in sustainable procurement in the
European Union by 2009 (DEFRA and HM Treasury, 2007).
Despite the importance of public sector procurement, the
number of studies that investigate the role of public
authorities in sustainable supply is still small (Warner and
Ryall, 2001; Swanson et al., 2005; Preuss, 2007; Thomson
and Jackson, 2007; Walker and Brammer, 2009). Hence this
paper adopts an exploratory approach. It seeks to make a
contribution to the emerging body of knowledge by examining
the range of initiatives through which public procurers in
leading local authorities address sustainable development.
More specifically, it is the paper’s objective to establish a
typology of current best practice in sustainable public

The author gratefully acknowledges financial support from WestFocus, a

Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
14/3 (2009) 213– 223
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 1359-8546]
[DOI 10.1108/13598540910954557]
consortium of Universities based in West London and the Thames Valley,
which funded the data collection that underlies this article. Particular
thanks are due to all the respondents who gave up their time to support
this research project.

213
 Addressing sustainable development through public procurement
Lutz Preuss
procurement. Given the paucity of prior research into this
question, such a typology will not only help define the
questions and hypotheses for future studies of sustainable
public procurement (Yin, 2003; Seuring, 2008); it will also
aid comparative analyses of sustainable public procurement in
different national contexts as well as comparisons of
sustainability in public and private sector supply chains.
The paper is structured as follows. Due to the particular
importance of legislation for public procurement (New et al.,
2002; Trepte, 2004), the subsequent section gives an
overview over the public policy framework for local
government in the UK. Next the literature on sustainable
procurement in the private and public sectors is reviewed.
The following section then presents the methodology and
data collection process utilised for this study. Thereafter the
research findings are presented and discussed. The paper
concludes with theoretical and managerial implications of the
research.
Local government procurement in the UK
Government in the UK is exercised through multiple layers.
The UK is divided into 468 local government authorities, of
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which England accounts for 388. Local authorities are elected
by the residents of their area and hence enjoy democratic
legitimacy. However, local authorities remain constitutionally
subordinate to central government, since they can only carry
out activities they are statutorily authorised to undertake
(Wilson and Game, 2006). A noticeable aspect of public
procurement is its sheer size and complexity. In the UK,
central government procurement expenditure of £13 billion
annually compares with the considerably higher figure of £40
billion spent by local authorities (DEFRA, 2006). Local
government spending is, however, fragmented in two
important ways. Geographically, there is the division into
the 468 individual authorities and within a local authority
major parts of the budget are allocated to officers in specific
departments, such as education or social services.
Recognising the importance of public procurement for
sustainability, the UK Government Sustainable Development
Strategy (DEFRA, 2005, p. 53) requires “embedding
sustainable development considerations into spending and
investment decisions.” The strategy led to the creation of a
business-led Sustainable Procurement Task Force, which
published its National Action Plan in 2006 (DEFRA, 2006).
The Task Force recommendations have since been
incorporated into the UK Government Sustainable
Procurement Action Plan (DEFRA and HM Treasury, 2007).
Specifically concerning local government, the Department for
Communities and Local Government (DCLG)[1] developed
a National Procurement Strategy for Local Government (DCLG,
2003, 2008). This was followed by the Local Government
Sustainable Procurement Strategy (LGA, IDeA and Centre of
Excellence North East, 2007), which urges local government
to make its spending decisions in ways that achieves value for
money while taking account of wider economic, social and
environmental benefits.
Over the last three decades, local government has also
experienced substantial political pressure to improve the
efficiency of its procurement. Central government pressure
materialised in the requirement for compulsory competitive
tendering (CCT) of selected services, introduced by the
Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in the late
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Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
Volume 14 · Number 3 · 2009 · 213 –223
1980s. The efficiency theme continued under the Labour
governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, although in a
modified form. The Local Government Act 1999 introduced
the notion of “Best Value” as a replacement for CCT, a
performance management framework to improve service
delivery. The Local Government Act 2000 has granted local
government wide-reaching “Well-Being Powers” to
implement measures that promote the economic, social and
environmental development of their area (Bennett et al.,
2004). While central government guidance no longer focuses
exclusively on financial savings, greater efficiency is still one of
its key themes today (Gershon, 2004; DCLG, 2006).
Local government procurement in the UK is furthermore
subject to a growing European Union influence, in particular
through a number of EU public procurement directives[2].
Various EU documents, not least the Treaties of Maastricht
and Amsterdam, have acknowledged the importance of
sustainable development, but the European Commission has
struggled to integrate the concept into European procurement
policy. Important milestones here were rulings by the
European Court of Justice that environmental and social
criteria can be used when assessing the most economically
advantageous tender; but they may only be applied where they
do not violate the principle of non-discrimination among EU
member states (Trepte, 2004; Environmental Audit
Committee, 2005).
Within this national and EU-level framework local
government can set local priorities. Decision making in local
councils varies between individual authorities but in general
terms involves a number of major players, including executive,
overview and scrutiny committee, the chief officers of the
council, as well as procurement and sustainability staff. New
policy initiatives, like sustainability, are likely to be introduced
by the executive. Alternatively, such policy impetus may come
out of the monitoring body, the overview and scrutiny
committee. Policy decisions are implemented by the officers
of the council, whose technical expertise and permanent
position relative to elected councillors put them in a position
of “dynamic dependency” on the council’s executive and
monitoring body (Gains, 2004). Sustainable procurement
initiatives will in particular call on the expertise of
sustainability and procurement staff. Having outlined the
policy framework for local government procurement, the next
section will review the literature on sustainable SCM.
Sustainable supply chain management
In line with a growing expectation that supply chain managers
address social and environmental externalities in globally
dispersed supply chains, the SCM literature has over the last
two decades increasingly addressed sustainability challenges
in supply. In a first phase, social and environmental
externalities were approached in stand-alone fashion (Carter
and Rogers, 2008). Scholars begun – albeit in isolation – to
address a range of issues, including purchasing impacts on the
environment (Green et al., 1998; McIntyre et al., 1998),
supplier employment conditions (Graafland, 2002; Mamic,
2005) or ethnic minority suppliers (Krause et al., 1999,
Carter et al., 1999).
Given the diverging starting points of SCM, it is not
surprising that sustainable SCM initially got conceptualised
from different directions. From a purchasing perspective (see
the review by Zsidisin and Siferd, 2001), Bowen et al. (2001)
 Addressing sustainable development through public procurement
Lutz Preuss
drew a distinction between a product-based and a process-
based approach to greener SCM, which can be
complemented with support activities, such as sustainability
marketing (Peattie, 2001). The aspects of sustainable SCM
that purchasing should address were integrated by Carter and
Jennings (2004) into the concept of Purchasing Social
Responsibility, which consists of the five dimensions
environment, diversity, safety, human rights and philanthropy.
Operations management – with its emphasis on time
reduction in JIT and waste minimisation in TQM – has
increasingly focussed on environmental impacts of the
resource flows along the value chain too (see the review by
Kleindorfer et al., 2005). Among others, King and Lenox
(2001) and Rothenberg et al. (2001) found synergies between
lean manufacturing and green manufacturing. Other
operations management scholars, such as Guide and Van
Wassenhove (2001) expanded the focus of sustainable SCM
to include resource reduction, product reuse and recycling to
incorporate re-manufacturing and closed-loop supply chains.
In logistics (see the review by Abukhader and Jönson, 2004)
research has focussed on environmentally friendly logistics
arrangements, including reverse logistics (Carter and Ellram,
1998; Tibben-Lembke, 2002). Some authors also provided
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integrative conceptualisations of the various social and
environmental impacts of logistics (Carter and Jennings,
2002; Murphy and Poist, 2002). Here Carter and Jennings
(2002) conceptualised Logistics Social Responsibility as
encompassing environment, diversity, human rights, safety,
philanthropy and community.
More recently, these various approaches to sustainable
SCM have become integrated (Carter and Rogers, 2008;
Seuring and Müller, in press). Building on the triple bottom-
line of a balanced achievement of economic, environmental
and social goals (Elkington, 1998), Carter and Rogers (2008,
p. 368) define sustainable SCM as:
the strategic, transparent integration and achievement of an organization’s
social, environmental, and economic goals in the systemic coordination of
key interorganizational business processes for improving the long-term
economic performance of the individual company and its supply chains.
Seuring and Müller (in press) stress that sustainable SCM has
to take account of a wider range of issues than purely
economic ones and hence is likely to involve a longer part of
the supply chain. This concerns information collection and
dissemination along the chain as well as attempts to influence
the performance of supply chain members. As a result,
sustainable SCM requires not only fuller information
dissemination, training of purchasing staff and greater
collaboration among supply chain members, it may also
benefit from novel management approaches, such as
partnerships for new product development. Having given an
overview of the literature on sustainable SCM in the private
sector, the next section will provide a more detailed review of
the literature on sustainability in public procurement.
Public sector procurement and sustainability
The academic literature on sustainable public procurement is
not extensive (Preuss, 2007; Walker and Brammer,
forthcoming), hence this part of the literature review will
also consider the growing practitioner and professional
literature on sustainable public SCM (for studies beyond
the UK, see Erdmenger, 2003 or Swanson et al., 2005). In an
early study into public procurement, Murray (2000) reported
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Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
Volume 14 · Number 3 · 2009 · 213 –223
on initiatives at Belfast City Council to generate synergies
through its procurement between environmental protection
and local economic development. To this end, the council put
in place a range of tools, from an environmental purchasing
policy through supplier environmental questionnaires to a
“Green Supplier of the Year” award.
After surveying green procurement in local authorities in
England and Wales, Warner and Ryall (2001) found that
many local authorities integrated environmental
considerations into their procurement policies. However,
these initiatives were only rated as moderately successful, with
higher costs of green products emerging as the most
commonly cited barrier. Thomson and Jackson (2007)
reported that local government authorities use a range of
approaches, like disseminating green procurement
information or encouraging suppliers to adopt
environmental management systems (EMS). The main
barriers to sustainable supply were a perceived lack of
priority at senior level in the council and again cost issues.
Financial viability issues also emerged as a barrier to
sustainable procurement from Walker and Brammer’s
(forthcoming) organisations from across the UK public
sector.
Notable practitioner contributions to sustainable
procurement include the work by IDeA (n.d.). Its collection
of case studies of good procurement practice includes a range
of sustainability initiatives. Analysing where public
expenditure has a high market share and where its
environmental and/or socio-economic impact is greatest, the
Sustainable Procurement Task Force (DEFRA, 2006) identified
ten priority areas for sustainable supply, namely construction;
health and social work; food; uniforms, clothing and other
textiles; waste; paper, pulp and printing; energy; office
consumables; furniture and transport (DEFRA, 2006). The
Local Government Sustainable Procurement Strategy (LGA,
IDeA and Centre of Excellence North East, 2007) prioritised
construction and facilities management, being the largest
procurement categories for local government, followed by
social care, waste management, energy, transport and food.
As far as barriers to sustainable procurement are concerned,
the Sustainable Procurement Task Force (DEFRA, 2006) noted
a lack of clear direction from organisational leaders, incentive
systems that fail to reward sustainability initiatives, a lack of
unambiguous information and competing objectives from
central government (see also Environmental Audit
Committee, 2005). The National Audit Office (NAO, 2005)
also saw barriers to sustainable procurement in a perceived
trade-off between sustainability and cost, a lack of leadership
and a failure to integrate sustainability into standard
procurement processes. Before these themes in the literature
on sustainable SCM are used to examine the range of
activities through which local government procurers pursue
sustainable development, the next section will present the
methodology for this study.
Methodology
Case research allows a relatively full understanding of the
nature and complexity of phenomena and lends itself to
exploratory investigations when phenomena are still
insufficiently understood (Eisenhardt, 1989; Meredith,
1998; Voss et al., 2002; Yin, 2003; Seuring, 2008). As there
is a relative scarcity of prior research into sustainable public
 Addressing sustainable development through public procurement
Lutz Preuss
SCM, the case method is well suited to the research question
at hand. The focus of the paper is not on explanation or
prediction but on understanding the details of how public
procurement managers address sustainability (Meredith,
1998). Using such an exploratory approach, the paper aims
to make a contribution to theory building, in particular to the
question of what sustainable SCM means in the context of
local government procurement.
The conceptual framework (Voss et al., 2002) that underlies
this paper takes its starting points on the one hand from the
distinction between the three dimensions of sustainable
development, i.e. economic, environmental and social
(Elkington, 1998), as applied in recent definitions of
sustainable SCM (Carter and Rogers, 2008; Seuring and
Müller, in press) and on the other hand from the distinction
by Bowen et al. (2001) between product-based and process-
based approaches to greener SCM as well as support
activities.
Cases organisations were selected according to theoretical
replication (Yin, 2003). Since sustainable public procurement
is an under-studied phenomenon, the study selected
organisations that were judged to be leaders in this area.
Given the strong influence of public policy on public sector
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procurement (New et al., 2002; Trepte, 2004) the sample was
restricted to local government authorities from England
alone. Actual case organisations were selected on the advice of
UK government bodies that have an overview over local
government procurement in the country, namely the
Department for Communities and Local Government
(DCLG), the Improvement and Development Agency
(IDeA) and two Regional Centres for Excellence in
Procurement. These organisations also furnished lists of
influential public policy and practitioner documents on public
procurement and sustainability.
The data for the study were collected through semi-
structured interviews as well as from complementary sources
of evidence, like internal local authority publications and
central government documents. Data gathering began with a
pilot stage, during which interviews were held at four local
authorities. The organisations approached to nominate
leaders in sustainable procurement suggested a combined
shortlist of 14 local government authorities. Two of these local
authorities declined participation; hence the entire study
consists of interviews in 16 organisations (see Table I).
The research protocol utilised a funnel model (Voss et al.,
2002). It started with broad and open-ended questions, like
which social, economic and environmental issues the local
Table I Details of local government authorities participating in the study
Stage Number of interviews Type of authority
Pilot stage 4 London Borough
Unitary Authority
Main study 12 London Borough
Metropolitan District
District Council
County Council
Unitary Authority
Source: Interviews with local government procurement managers
Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
Volume 14 · Number 3 · 2009 · 213 –223
authority aims to address, and proceed to more detailed ones,
such as what targets and tools the council uses. Once local
authorities had been selected, initial contact was made with
the procurement manager as identified on the local authority
webpage. Where these felt they were not the best person to
respond, they were asked to put the researcher in contact with
the person with the greatest overview over sustainability issues
in procurement. Where the research questions could be
reliably answered by one respondent only one person was
interviewed. In three local authorities two members of the
procurement team with responsibility for different aspects of
sustainable development were interviewed together.
The data documentation and coding process entailed
recording the interviews and transcribing their content shortly
after the event. The transcripts were e-mailed to the
respondents for comment and potential clarification of
content (Voss et al., 2002; Yin, 2003). To reduce data into
categories, the raw data as presented by the informants was
coded manually according to the criteria of the conceptual
framework. Once coding was completed for all interviews,
data were re-ordered in accordance with construct categories
and then re-arranged in summary display. The analysis was
undertaken first within and then between cases (Eisenhardt,
1989). It should be re-stated that the aim of the study was not
to contrast case organisations but to generate a combined
typology of approaches that are used by best practice
organisations.
Economic development initiatives
The presentation of the study’s findings shall be guided by the
conceptual framework which combined the definition of
sustainable development as consisting of an integrated
achievement of economic, social and environmental progress
(Elkington, 1998) with a distinction between product-based,
processed-based and support initiatives (Bowen et al., 2001).
On the economic development side, an increase in
contracting with local businesses emerged as an important
aim of local authorities. Procurement managers were acutely
aware of the economic benefits that contracting with local
firms can bring to a local economy. Several local authorities
reported initiatives to measure their expenditure with local
firms and map the locations of these to enable the council to
better monitor the distribution of its spending. One county
council in the North of England measured the economic
effect of contracting with local suppliers and found that local
suppliers re-spend an average of 76 per cent of contract
UK region Political control (at time of interview)
1 London 1 Conservative 2
3 South East 3 Liberal Democrat 1
No overall control 1
5 London 5 Labour 7
3 North West 2 Liberal Democrat 1
2 South East 1 Conservative 1
1 South West 1 No overall control 3
1 Midlands 1
North Yorkshire 1
216
 Addressing sustainable development through public procurement
Lutz Preuss
income within the region, while outside suppliers only spend
36 per cent.
Product-based approaches to fostering local economic
development were chiefly found in the procurement of food
for schools and residential care homes. Stipulating local food
was seen as being supported by the ‘Well-Being Powers’
granted to local authorities under the Local Government Act
2000, as it combines supporting regional regeneration with
health improvements from better quality meals. However, as a
result of wide-spread contracting-out many local authorities
now have only a diminished discretion over catering in schools
and residential care homes (Wilson and Game, 2006).
Process-based approaches to fostering local economic
development included attempts by several local authorities
to persuade key contractors to provide opportunities for local
SMEs as second or third tier suppliers. Where undertaken as
a purely voluntary encouragement of prime contractors, such
attempts have not been very successful. However, using their
“Well-Being Powers” some local authorities also sought more
binding first-tier contractor commitments, for example in a
construction contract by a North London borough.
Support initiatives to foster local economic development
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took a variety of forms. Many local authorities undertook
initiatives to make their own demand more transparent. For
example, a district council in the South East of England
designed an internet business portal that shows current
council contracts and enables companies to express an
interest in bidding for these. Publishing web-based guides to
council business has since become one of the measures local
authorities are to undertake under the National Procurement
Strategy for Local Government. The provision of information
on public contracts was also improved through “Meet-the-
Buyer” events, where potential suppliers were able to interact
with procurement officers from a range of public sector
organisations in their area.
One London borough reported an innovative project to
enhance the capacity of local companies to secure public
contracts. Assistance was given to local firms in the form of
workshops, networking events and even one-to-one
consultancy. The topics of these ranged from general
guidance on public procurement to more technical support,
such as help with completing tender documentation. The
project was accompanied by an “SME Issues Log”, where
local businesses could communicate to the council what
problems they encountered when bidding for contracts. One
of the main findings was that a move towards outsourcing of
key council services was widely perceived as having limited
contracting opportunities for smaller businesses.
Local government authorities reported a range of initiatives
to address the economic side of sustainable development.
Procuring locally grown food for schools on the product side
was matched with a process-based encouragement of large
contractors to utilise local businesses as subcontractors. These
were supported by initiatives to improve the capacity of local
firms to bid for such contracts in the first place. While the
former two aspects are particular to public procurement and
result from its specific public policy powers, the latter
examples echo a long-standing concern in the SCM literature
with supplier development (Krause and Ellram, 1997; Rogers
et al., 2007).
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Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
Volume 14 · Number 3 · 2009 · 213 –223
Social aspects of sustainability
Local government procurement was able to make important
contributions to the social aspects of sustainability too. On the
product side, such commitment was expressed through the
certification of local authorities as FairTrade towns. The rules
for granting this status are laid down by the FairTrade
Foundation (FairTrade Foundation, 2002) and compel local
authorities to serve FairTrade produce during their meetings
and to promote FairTrade produce in their area. The
procurement of FairTrade produce does, however, involve a
legal hurdle, as such social labels are not permitted under EU
procurement rules (OGC, n.d.). Caterers may be encouraged
to include FairTrade produce in their bid, but it is the whole
package, not just the FairTrade component, that should be
evaluated in terms of value for money. While internal
consumption of FairTrade produce may be of limited
impact in most local authorities, the symbolic value of
promoting FairTrade to a wider range of stakeholders should
not be underestimated.
A key process-based approach to fostering social aspects of
sustainability are “Community Benefit Clauses”. Being socio-
economic criteria that are inserted into supply contracts, they
have a legal basis in the “Well-Being Powers” of local
government (see also Macfarlane and Cook, 2002). One
borough in central London reported encouraging results from
using such clauses under which, for example, a construction
supplier agreed to provide a number of apprenticeships. Other
process-based approaches concerned contracting with the
voluntary sector and with social enterprises (see also
Thompson and Doherty, 2006). Such contracting
arrangements were seen as advantageous by local
government procurers due to the ability of these service
providers to pinpoint local needs much better than council
departments could. As an example, a metropolitan borough in
Yorkshire contracted with a manufacturer that recycles
contaminated plastic waste into street and garden furniture
and employs people with learning disabilities. A London
borough even awarded a waste and recycling contract of an
annual value of £10 million to a social enterprise. The
business had started out in the 1970s providing local
transport and then expanded into a range of other services,
including refuse collection and recycling.
Like economic development, the social side of sustainability
has attracted a spectrum of initiatives by local government
procurement. These include promoting FairTrade certified
produce on the product side or contracting with voluntary
enterprises on the process side. As was the case for local
businesses, voluntary organisations and social enterprises
differed in their ability to bid for public sector contracts.
While some businesses had gained considerable contracting
expertise many others struggled, and local government
procurers acknowledged that these enterprises may need
particular support to develop their professional skills. In the
final analysis, however, they were adamant that these
suppliers cannot rely on their special status to gain business.
This situation is a public sector equivalent to special sourcing
arrangements for minority-owned suppliers, where it is also
understood that ultimately the survival of the supplier
depends on its ability to offer a competitive product or
service (Krause et al., 1999).
 Addressing sustainable development through public procurement
Lutz Preuss
Environmental initiatives
Environmental initiatives in local government procurement
aimed to reduce the ecological impact of procured goods by
switching to less environmentally damaging alternatives.
Some of these initiatives are well-rehearsed by now, like the
stipulation of a recycled content for paper, office
consumables, office furniture or aggregates for road
construction. However, individual procurement managers
also stated that recent price advantages of virgin paper
prevented them from buying recycled paper. Contracts for
office equipment typically included specifications relating to
energy consumption (e.g. Energy Star or EU Energy
Efficiency Labels). Product-based initiatives were also
reported around vehicles and fuel, where a London borough
introduced bio-diesel for its vehicle fleet.
Service contracts too saw a range of initiatives to address
environmental issues. In construction contracts, procurement
managers sought to include sustainable design features to
minimise the future consumption of energy, water and
cleaning services. A related environmental issue concerned
timber and wood in construction, where a London borough
required all its timber to conform to the standards of the
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Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Another London borough
was at the time of interview exploring alternatives to PVC
windows, such as FSC certified wooden windows. In cleaning
and parks management contracts, particular emphasis was
placed on limiting the use of detergents and pesticides.
Process-based initiatives to address environmental
challenges were somewhat rarer. One South London
borough required construction contractors to generate 10
per cent of their energy from on-site renewables. Local
authorities also reported initiatives to procure
environmentally friendlier forms of energy. A district council
in the South East of England contracted with a private sector
company to supply green energy, which was approved by its
councillors despite being somewhat more expensive. On a
smaller scale in terms of their environmental impact were
stipulations for catering contractors to avoid the use of
disposable dishes and cutlery.
Local government authorities addressed environmental
issues in their procurement in a number of ways. Product-
based initiatives, such as using recycled instead of virgin
paper, were accompanied by ones that addressed the
environmental impact of procured services, like sustainable
design criteria in construction contracts. A number of
process-based initiatives were reported, such as better
planning of vehicle routing. It was, however, also noted that
environmental initiatives often carry cost implications.
Although counter-examples exist, many local authorities
would not commit themselves to paying such green
premiums, echoing similar concerns in private sector
organisations (Seuring and Müller, n.d.).
Indirect activities
In addition to direct initiatives, local government authorities
supported sustainable development in more indirect ways.
Such initiatives included the compilation and dissemination
of sustainability-related information. A first step in this
direction can be to draw up a “Sustainable Procurement
Policy” (see also Warner and Ryall, 2001). A borough in the
South of London also compiled a “Green Procurement
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Guide”, which contains advice on what issues council staff
should consider when buying various categories of products
and services.
A reduction of local authority sustainability impacts was
also achieved through sustainability training of procurement
officers. One London borough undertakes a sustainability risk
assessment to identify significant sustainability impacts of key
contracts at the start of the procurement process. The
borough’s risk assessment, which uses a model developed by
IDeA and the Environment Agency, contains a checklist on
the likely impacts of a contract, allows the identification of
mitigation measures to be put in place and gives advice on the
inclusion of these in the contract. Procurement staff can also
receive guidance and training on how to effectively include
such requirements in their contracts. A number of local
government authorities furthermore demonstrated their
commitment to sustainable development by seeking
certification to ISO 14001 or, less often, the European
Union scheme EMAS.
Some local authorities asked suppliers to complete a
sustainability management questionnaire when bidding for
council business, although two managers also commented
that their local authority lacked the resources to evaluate these
systematically. On the basis of such information, councils
have given annual awards for particularly innovative suppliers,
as practiced by Belfast City Council with its “Green Supplier
of the Year” award (Murray, 2000). Such indirect approaches
are particularly appropriate given the decentralised nature of
local government procurement, where purchasing decisions
are usually devolved to a multitude of buyers with different
skill levels working in a range of departments. At the same
time, the suite of these tools bears quite a resemblance to
those used in the private sector (see the review by Seuring and
Müller, n.d.).
Discussion
Local government implemented a wide spectrum of initiatives
to address sustainable development through its procurement,
which covered economic, social and environmental aspects.
From a contracting perspective, the approaches ranged from
product-based ones, like stipulating energy requirement
criteria for IT equipment, through service-based ones, for
example requiring minimum recycled content for building
materials in construction contracts, to process-based ones,
like encouraging key contractors to use local firms as their
second tier suppliers. Some local authorities also reported a
range of supporting initiatives, both to make their own
demand more transparent and to improve the skills base of
local firms, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. A
number of councils have furthermore undertaken indirect
activities, like disseminating sustainability know-how across
the local authority or seeking certification to an environmental
management standard (see Table II).
The typology presented in Table II indicates that the
definition of sustainable SCM by Carter and Rogers (2008) –
although originally developed in a private sector context – is
applicable to the public sector. Public sector sustainable SCM
can equally be conceptualised as the systematic achievement
of an organisation’s social, environmental and economic
goals. Additionally, the supporting facets of sustainable SCM
that were drawn out by Carter and Rogers – transparency,
 Addressing sustainable development through public procurement
Lutz Preuss
Table II A typology of sustainability initiatives in local government procurement
Aspect of sustainability Procurement approach
Economic development Product-based
Process-based
Support
Social issues Product-based
Process-based
Support
Environmental protection Product-based
Service contracts
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Process-based
Overarching Indirect measures
Note: aAn example of such an initiative was reported in Murray (2000)
Source: Interviews with local government procurement managers
strategy, culture and risk management – are largely relevant
for sustainable SCM in the public sector too.
Transparency along supply chains has for some time been
recognised as a major challenge in SCM, in particular in
relation with the dampening of amplification effects (Fisher
et al., 1997; Towill, 1997; Lamming et al., 2001; Skjoett-
Larsen et al., 2003). Increased supply chain transparency can
lead to collaborative success, particularly in terms of schedule
adherence, capacity planning, material ordering and inventory
management (Bartlett and Baines, 2007). In sustainable
public SCM transparency emerged as a key support aspect in
the dissemination of sustainability information within and
beyond the local authority and particularly in initiatives to
encourage a broader supply base to tender for public sector
business. According to the procurement manager of a district
council in the South East of England:
If you really want to stimulate interest and get people to really see this as an
opportunity and get involved, I think you’ve got to make the demand side
much more transparent.
Strategy has equally become a familiar term to SCM
researchers and practitioners (Harland et al., 1999). Strategic
Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
Volume 14 · Number 3 · 2009 · 213 –223
Examples
Procuring locally grown food for schools, residential care establishments and civic catering
Increased contracting with local and regional suppliers
Encouraging first-tier contractors to make use of local companies as their sub-contractors
Making local government demand more transparent through internet procurement portals and
“Meet the Buyer” events
Improving local firm capability to bid for public sector contracts
Facilities for suppliers to report barriers to contracting with the public sector
Measuring expenditure with local firms and their re-spending within the local area
Encouraging caterers to supply FairTrade-certified produce
Use of Community Benefit Clauses under which contractors agree to provide employment or
apprenticeships
Contracting with social enterprises and the voluntary sector
Capacity building for social enterprises and voluntary organisations
Stipulating low energy consumption for IT equipment
Buying of recycled paper; use of remanufactured printer cartridges
Avoid hardwood and hazardous treatments in office furniture
Procuring of vehicles running on alternative fuels
Sustainable building design to minimise future consumption of energy, water and cleaning
services
Recycled content for building materials or road surfacing in construction contracts; FSC
certification for construction timber
Reduced use of pesticides in parks management
Building contractors to produce energy from renewables
Greener forms of energy provision
Avoid use of disposable dishes and cutlery in catering contracts
Adoption of a Sustainable Procurement Policy
Dissemination of procurement-related sustainability information
Sustainability risk assessment for key contracts
Procurement officer training in sustainable supply
Certification to ISO 14001 or EMAS
Sustainability management questionnaire for suppliers
Awards for particularly sustainable suppliersa
SCM demands an optimisation of value creation processes, not
at firm level, but through the alignment of functional units
inside the firm with key suppliers in its value stream (Cousins
and Spekman, 2003). Such a strategic approach should also be
applied to sustainable SCM, where companies need to find
ways to incorporate environmental and social aspects into their
SCM strategy and practices (Koplin et al., 2007). In public
procurement, the need for strategic integration as a prerequisite
for sustainable SCM was evident too. For example, the
sustainable procurement manager of a North London borough
commented on a lack of such collaboration with budget
holders in devolved departments:
On larger capital projects they are supposed to, but don’t always, talk to me
about how to think about sustainability from the very beginning, because
obviously when you have a building and you are at the final drawing, it is
very difficult to say: you want to do this, because then it is always too
expensive.
Changes to organisational strategy are predicated on
organisational culture. As any other organisational member,
the behaviour of SCM professionals is influenced by the
socially negotiated order that prevails within their company
219
 Addressing sustainable development through public procurement
Lutz Preuss
(Kamann and Bakker, 2004). Hence strategic change requires
a new mindset that must be instilled across the organisation.
Its absence may, for instance, lead SCM managers to forego
proactive supplier engagement strategies for fear of being seen
as “weak” buyers (Cousins and Spekman, 2003). In
sustainable SCM such differences in organisational culture
can determine where an organisation positions itself on the
continuum from innovator to laggard (Harwood and Humby,
2008). Barriers of this kind were noted by a manager of a
South London borough who examined options for replacing
PVC:
We wanted to move to only specifying FSC timber window frames as part of
our window replacement programme, but there’s still too much concern in
the industry about using timber-framed windows. At the moment, the
contract managers want to go on using UPVC, but as the technology
improves then obviously we can give more evidence that will bring about
change.
The final supporting facet drawn out by Carter and Rogers –
risk management – was found only in one London borough,
which sought to identify significant sustainability impacts of
key contracts at the start of the procurement process. At the
same time, many procurement managers were keen to utilise
the opportunities provided by recent changes in central
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government legislation concerning the remit of local
government, in particular the ‘Well-Being Powers’ granted
under the Local Government Act 2000. It is the raison d’être
of local government to respond to local demographics and
tailor its service provision in accordance with these (Stewart,
2000; Wilson and Game, 2006) and the same logic is
increasingly being applied to sourcing arrangements at many
local authorities.
Overall, the definition of sustainable SCM by Carter and
Rogers (2008) can be extended to the public sector. Taking
account of minor shifts in emphasis for the supporting facets,
sustainable public sector SCM can now be defined as:
the strategic and transparent integration and achievement of a public sector
organisation’s social, environmental and economic goals in the systematic
coordination of key interorganisational commercial processes for improving
the long-term performance of the organisation and the territorial base for
which it is democratically accountable for, in line with overarching public
policy priorities.
Theoretical and managerial implications
In terms of theoretical implications, the study provides public
sector evidence of the observation made by Seuring and
Müller (in press) that sustainable SCM has to take account of
a wider range of issues and has to reach further along the
supply chains than was previously the case when SCM
“merely” considered economic issues. Such an extension was
evident in the efforts of local government procurement
managers to get prime contractors to work with local firms as
their second and third tier suppliers. At a North London
borough the sustainable procurement manager explained this
challenge as follows:
One of the key aspects of our using big contracts and frameworks is actually
trying to make sure that if there is a shift, i.e. where we have major
outsourcing to something we might have managed before with a number of
smaller contractors, that those smaller contractors can be placed into the
supply chain of these major contractors. That is a critical part of our work to
be in terms of the sustainability agenda.
While public procurement used to have a predominantly
dyadic outlook, this perspective now gets lengthened as a
result of sustainability challenges. Taking up the definition of
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Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
Volume 14 · Number 3 · 2009 · 213 –223
SCM by Mentzer et al. (2001, p. 3) who explicitly see the
concept as being concerned with “a set of three or more
entities (organizations or individuals) . . . ”, the argument is
made here that the requirements of sustainability help to push
public procurement along the road from purchasing to SCM.
As far as managerial implications are concerned, the paper
provides a starting point for developing a common
understanding among public procurers as to what
sustainability means in the context of public procurement.
Carter and Rogers (2008) make a similar claim for private
sector practitioners, noting that most managers have heard
about sustainability but that very different perceptions of the
concept prevail. As exemplified by the procurement manager
of a borough in the North West of London, such a wide range
of interpretations exists in the public sector too:
In some areas it seems to be a very narrow focus, in other areas it seems to be
quite a broad church of almost everything.
A better understanding of sustainable SCM would go hand in
hand with the advice by the Sustainable Procurement Task Force
(DEFRA, 2006) that the public sector should move beyond
an initial focus on environmental issues to address a more
holistic range of sustainability aspects through its
procurement. The data presented here also indicate that
sustainability issues do not always have to cost more. Thus the
paper could serve as encouragement for procurement
managers to explore opportunities for sustainable supply
that go beyond ‘win-win’ cases.
Conclusions
The focus of this paper has been on the ways in which local
government authorities utilise their procurement functions to
foster sustainable development. The research uncovered a
wide range of initiatives that local councils have undertaken to
address all three aspects of sustainability. These include
encouraging first-tier suppliers to make use of small local
businesses as their subcontractors on the economic side,
contracting with voluntary organisation on the social side or
replacing hazardous materials in products and services on the
environmental side. Some local authorities also compile and
disseminate sustainability information through environmental
policies or apply a sustainability risk assessment for key
contracts to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability.
These initiatives of best practice local authorities were
condensed into a typology of sustainable public sector
SCM, which can serve as a basis for future studies of this
research question.
The individual aspects of sustainable public sector SCM
provided a basis for extending the definition of sustainable
SCM by Carter and Rogers (2008) to the public sector. The
study also underlined the importance of supporting factors –
namely transparency, strategy, culture and risk management –
for sustainable SCM. As far as local government is concerned,
respondents furthermore expressed a desire to fully utilise
newly introduced public policy to support the sustainability of
their area through local authority procurement. In some cases,
sustainability challenges require procurement managers to
reach further along the supply chain than had previously been
the case. In theoretical terms, the paper thus argues that
sustainability pushes local government along the road from
purchasing to SCM.
 Addressing sustainable development through public procurement
Lutz Preuss
There are a number of ways in which this research could be
taken further. As the study was limited to local government in
England, future research could not only study outstanding
local authorities in other parts of the United Kingdom but
should also examine the experience of other OECD countries.
Since the data for this article were generated in a qualitative
study, a survey that quantifies the application of sustainability
initiatives in local government would make a particularly
useful contribution.
Notes
1 This department was formerly the Office of the Deputy
Prime Minister (ODPM).
2 Directive 2004/18/EC of 2004 regulates public works
contracts, public supply contracts and public service
contracts and Directive 2004/17/EC of 2004 regulates
contracting with utility companies. They replace
Directive 93/36/EEC of 1993 on public supply
contracts, Directive 93/37/EEC of 1993 on public works
contracts, Directive 93/38/EEC of 1993 on utilities
contracts as well as Directive 92/50/EEC of 1992 on
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public service contracts.
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Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
Volume 14 · Number 3 · 2009 · 213 –223
Supply Chain Management: An International Journal,
Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 128-37.
Warner, K.E. and Ryall, C. (2001), “Greener purchasing
activities within UK local authorities”, Eco-management and
Auditing, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 36-45.
Wilson, D. and Game, C. (2006), Local Government in the
United Kingdom, 4th ed., Palgrave, Basingstoke.
Yin, R.K. (2003), Case Study Research: Design and Methods,
Sage, Beverly Hills, CA.
Zsidisin, G.A. and Siferd, S.P. (2001), “Environmental
purchasing: a framework for theory development”,
European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management,
Vol. 7, pp. 61-73.
Further reading
Preuss, L. (2005), The Green Multiplier: A Study of
Environmental Protection and the Supply Chain, Palgrave,
Basingstoke.
Corresponding author
Lutz Preuss can be contacted at: Lutz.Preuss@rhul.ac.uk
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