Moving to a
quadruple/quintuple helix in Sustainable Public
Procurement
Rodrigo Lozano (PhD), Sigrid Pettersen, Anette Jonsall (PhD), Camilla Niss (PhD)
April, 2018 SMART Project
Oslo, Norway
Introduction
• A number of authors have highlighted the importance of balancing the sustainability issues in the economic,
environmental, social, and the time dimensions, as well as their inter-connections through a holistic perspective
(Lozano, 2008)
• Sustainability needs the engagement of stakeholders
(Agenda 21; WCED, 1987)
Public procurement (PP)
• A key economic activity of governments (Brammer and Walker, 2011)
• It refers to the acquisition of goods and services by
governments or public sector organisations through public contracts (Kiiver and Kodym, 2014), and allows public sector
organisations to perform their functions and deliver its services (Uyarra et al., 2014)
Traditional PP process stages
Supplier Product Procurer
Price per unit
Production Delivery
Raw materials Waste
Payment Technical
specifications
Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP)
• Demand for sustainable products and services can be promoted (Parikka-Alhola, 2008; Walker and Brammer, 2012), set a trend for other organisations (Day, 2005), and enlarge the
market for sustainable products or services (Uyarra et al., 2014)
• If all public authorities in the European Union switched to green electricity, they would save more than 60 billion tonnes of CO2, and if they used energy-efficient desktop computers, another 830,000 tonnes of CO2 (Day, 2005)
SPP (2)
• UNEP (2014) set up an initiative to promote sustainable
public procurement, aimed at linking the consumption side, through governmental public procurement, to the production side, through the development of more
sustainable business models (SBM)
Literature on SPP (1)
• The procurement process (Liu & Cui, 2016)
• The link between SPP and businesses (Alvarez & Rubio, 2015; Walker & Preuss, 2008)
• The links product-service systems (Hannon et al., 2015)
• Eco-design (Byggeth & Hochschorner, 2006)
• Environmental management systems (Testa, Annunziata, Iraldo, & Frey, 2016)
Literature on SPP (2)
• Barriers to change and drivers of collaboration between
procurement process actors (Uttam & Le Lann Roos, 2015; Walker &
Preuss, 2008)
• The need for research on social cultural issues (Bratt et al., 2013;
Mosgaard, Riisgaard, & Huulgaard, 2013)
• Supplier selection (Igarashi et al., 2015)
• The effects of cultural and political framings of SPP (Smith et al., 2016)
There is still limited research on systems considering more than the supplier and procurer collaboration (see Witjes & Lozano, 2016)
Collaboration
• Harvests its benefits from differences in perspectives,
knowledge and approaches, solving problems while at the same time offering benefits to all those involved in the
process (Lozano, 2007)
• It requires exchange of information (Troy et al., 2008) and coordination of activities across interdependent
organisational units (Cuijpers et al., 2011)
Traditional Public Procurement
Procurer
Supplier Supplier selection using technical, non-technical and social-cultural specifications
Stakeholder demand inventory selectionand
Definition of product or
service
Criteria specification
Selection of suppliers and signing
of the contract
Supply of product or
service
Use of product or
service Preparation stage Specification stage Sourcing stage Utilisation stage
Sustainable and collaborative Public Procurement
Procurement and business models for CE (ProBiz4CE) framework
Suppliers´
business model
Procurers´
business model
Price per service (functional unit)
Product providing a service
Use of products
Collaboration
Specifications (technical and non-technical) Shared
responsibility
Value
Waste Raw
materials
Recovery
Supplier Product Procurer
Price per unit
Production Delivery
Raw materials Waste
Payment Technical
specifications
Functional Procurement as an innovative procurement model
• Better effect (more value for tax money) for the public sector
• Products and services adjusted to the public sectors needs
• Creates better facilities for small companies to deliver to the public market, in the process of the public procurement
Quadruple/Quintuple Helix in the procurement process
• Identification of needs
• Taking the context/environment into consideration
• Cross-skilled team
• Collaboration with suppliers before during and after the procurement process
• Collaboration between public, private and end users
continues throughout the contract period and is enrolled in the agreement
Tack!
Thank you!
Rodrigo Lozano (PhD), Sigrid Pettersen, Anette Jonsall (PhD), Camilla Niss (PhD)
