SWOT ANALYSIS

ADDRESSING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PUBLIC

PROCUREMENT: THE CASE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

STRENGTHS

Public procurement could use its purchasing power to help establish markets for more
environmentally friendly products that might otherwise go unnoticed. IDeA's work on
sustainable procurement is an example of notable practitioner contributions.

Many local authorities have taken steps to make their own demands more transparent.
A district council in the South East of England, for example, created an internet
business portal that displays existing council contracts and allows enterprises to
indicate interest in bidding on them. The National Procurement Strategy for Local
Government has since made web-based guides to council business one of the
measures that local governments must implement. “Meet-the-Buyer” events, where
potential suppliers may connect with procurement officers from a variety of public sector
organizations, also increased the provision of information on public contracts.

Through its procurement, the local government undertook a wide range of efforts to
address sustainable development, including economic, social, and environmental
elements. From the standpoint of contracting, the approaches ranged from product-
based approaches, such as stipulating energy requirements for IT equipment, to
service-based approaches, , such as demanding a certain percentage of recycled
content in building materials in construction contracts, to process-based ones, such as
encouraging important contractors to utilize local enterprises as their second-tier
suppliers. Some local governments also reported a variety of support efforts aimed at
making their own requirements more transparent as well as improving the skills base of
local businesses, non-profits, and social entrepreneurs. Several councils have also
engaged in indirect initiatives, such as sharing sustainability knowledge throughout the
municipality or obtaining certification to an environmental management standard.
WEAKNESSES

The main obstacles to long-term supply were a perceived lack of attention at the
council's high levels, as well as cost concerns. Walker and Brammer's (forthcoming)
organizations from across the UK public sector identified financial viability difficulties as
a barrier to sustainable procurement. The Sustainable Procurement Task Force
identified a lack of clear direction from organizational leaders, incentive systems that fail
to reward sustainability initiatives, a lack of unambiguous information, and competing
central government objectives as barriers to sustainable procurement. Barriers to
sustainable procurement, according to the National Audit Office include a perceived
trade-off between sustainability and cost, a lack of leadership, and a failure to integrate
sustainability into normal procurement processes. Prior to examining the range of
activities through which local government procurers pursue sustainable SCM, these
themes in the literature on sustainable SCM were utilized to assess the range of
activities through which local government procurers pursue sustainable SCM.

OPPORTUNITIES

Increased contracting with local enterprises has emerged as a key goal of local
governments in terms of economic growth. Procurement executives were well aware of
the economic benefits that contracting with local businesses can bring to a community.
Several local governments have reported measures to track their spending with local
businesses and map their locations so that the council can better track its spending
distribution. The procurement of food for schools and residential care facilities was
where product-based approaches to supporting local economic development were most
prevalent. The ‘Well-Being Powers' granted to local governments under the Local
Government Act 2000 were considered as encouraging mandating local food because it
blends assisting regional revitalization with health advantages from better quality meals.
Several local governments attempted to persuade significant contractors to give
chances for local SMEs as second or third tier suppliers as part of process-based
approaches to supporting local economic growth. Such measures have not been very
successful when performed as a purely voluntary inducement of prime contractors.
However, some local governments used their "Well-Being Powers" to get more binding
first-tier contractor commitments, such as in a building contract with a North London
borough.

THREATS

After conducting a review on green procurement in English local governments, it was

discovered that many of them included environmental factors in their procurement
strategies. However, these activities were only assessed as moderately successful, with
the most generally stated barrier being the higher costs of green items.

The SCM literature has progressively addressed sustainability concerns in supply

chains over the last two decades, in accordance with a growing expectation that supply
chain managers address social and environmental externalities in internationally
distributed supply chains. In the initial phase, social and environmental externalities
were dealt with separately. Scholars began addressing a variety of concerns, including
the effects of purchasing on the environment, supplier work conditions, and ethnic
minority suppliers - though in isolation.