Sustainable Procurement Process: A Case Study at a Public Higher …
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also stimulating the acquisition of sustainable products. It is also perceived the efficient use of public resources, improving the working conditions of employees since
companies generally comply with labor laws and do not use child labor (UNEP
2012).
Several countries have adopted sustainable bidding standards, such as United
Kingdom, Canada, United States, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Japan,
Sweden, Austria, South Korea, and Switzerland. In Brazil, efforts have been made
to adopt criteria through Law No. 11079/2004 (general rules on public–private
procurement) (Brasil 2004), Law No. 8666/1993 (bidding and contracts of the public
administration) (Brasil 1993), Decree No. 5540 (regulates the auction in electronic
form for contracting goods and services) (Brasil 2005), Normative Instruction No.
01/2010 (establishes the criteria of environmental sustainability in the acquisition
of goods, contracting of services or buildings in the Federal Public) (Brasil 2010),
Decree No. 7746/2012 (establishes criteria and practices for promoting sustainable
national development in Federal Public Administration contracts) (Brasil 2012),
among others.
However, there is not a precise list of specific criteria in Public Higher Federal
Education Institutions (Brazil) that could assist in the procurement process (Hegenberg 2013), such as in other countries. For example, in Hamburg (Germany), it could
be quoted simple measures that environmental authorities developed, such as they:
exchanged every two old light bulbs for a more energy-efficient light bulb in 300 public
buildings. They consequently reduced annual electricity consumption by about 4.5 million
kWh (equivalent to approximately 2700 t of CO 2 emissions, taking into account fossil fuel
consumption in that country for electricity generation). Considering the price of 0.5 per
kWh, the saving obtained was of 225,000 on the Hamburg energy bill” (Biderman et al.
2008, p. 43).
In order to optimize sustainable procurement processes, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed the standard ISO 20400 (ISO 2015).
It has several criteria that can be adopted in the implementation of this type of
procedure in public and private institutions (ISO 2015). It is noteworthy that this
regulation does not replace the legislations determined by the public sector, but it
includes criteria that can help the implementation of sustainability.
In this context, this article aimed to propose a sustainable procurement process
based on ISO 20400 (2015) in a Public Higher Education Institution (PHEI) from
Brazil.
2 Methodology
This research was developed by five steps, as it is shown in Fig. 1. The figure was
organized following the steps defined by Gil (2008) for a case study:
63
also stimulating the acquisition of sustainable products. It is also perceived the efficient use of public resources, improving the working conditions of employees since
companies generally comply with labor laws and do not use child labor (UNEP
2012).
Several countries have adopted sustainable bidding standards, such as United
Kingdom, Canada, United States, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Japan,
Sweden, Austria, South Korea, and Switzerland. In Brazil, efforts have been made
to adopt criteria through Law No. 11079/2004 (general rules on public–private
procurement) (Brasil 2004), Law No. 8666/1993 (bidding and contracts of the public
administration) (Brasil 1993), Decree No. 5540 (regulates the auction in electronic
form for contracting goods and services) (Brasil 2005), Normative Instruction No.
01/2010 (establishes the criteria of environmental sustainability in the acquisition
of goods, contracting of services or buildings in the Federal Public) (Brasil 2010),
Decree No. 7746/2012 (establishes criteria and practices for promoting sustainable
national development in Federal Public Administration contracts) (Brasil 2012),
among others.
However, there is not a precise list of specific criteria in Public Higher Federal
Education Institutions (Brazil) that could assist in the procurement process (Hegenberg 2013), such as in other countries. For example, in Hamburg (Germany), it could
be quoted simple measures that environmental authorities developed, such as they:
exchanged every two old light bulbs for a more energy-efficient light bulb in 300 public
buildings. They consequently reduced annual electricity consumption by about 4.5 million
kWh (equivalent to approximately 2700 t of CO 2 emissions, taking into account fossil fuel
consumption in that country for electricity generation). Considering the price of 0.5 per
kWh, the saving obtained was of 225,000 on the Hamburg energy bill” (Biderman et al.
2008, p. 43).
In order to optimize sustainable procurement processes, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed the standard ISO 20400 (ISO 2015).
It has several criteria that can be adopted in the implementation of this type of
procedure in public and private institutions (ISO 2015). It is noteworthy that this
regulation does not replace the legislations determined by the public sector, but it
includes criteria that can help the implementation of sustainability.
In this context, this article aimed to propose a sustainable procurement process
based on ISO 20400 (2015) in a Public Higher Education Institution (PHEI) from
Brazil.
2 Methodology
This research was developed by five steps, as it is shown in Fig. 1. The figure was
organized following the steps defined by Gil (2008) for a case study: