Environmental and sustainability aspects in public procurements: perceptions of the Brazilian public sector

Abstract

In general, government procurement accounts for between 10% and 16% of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP), making it an important part of the economy. Therefore, government procurement policies should be discussed in terms of sustainable consumption and production patterns. However, imprecision and lack of clarity regarding environmental and sustainability aspects are often seen as obstacles to their advancement. In this study, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used to evaluate the perceptions of public servants working in Brazilian government bidding and contracting departments on issues related to the inclusion of environmental and sustainability aspects in public procurement procedures. Five key factors were identified – “Perspective,” “Legal and Institutional Support,” “Market Relations,” “Acquisition Costs,” and “Public Servant Participation” – of which the latter factor emerged as the most relevant according to hierarchical evaluation. In this way, the participation of public servants in this debate, associated with professional training and improvement courses, is a fundamental condition for the success of the policies proposed.

Keywords

• sustainable public procurement
• green public procurement
• sustainable consumption and production patterns
• environmental labeling