SAPIENS’ fourth Advanced Training Course (ATC4) discussed sustainability assessment and collaboration in sustainable public procurement (SPP).

This ATC complements the previous SAPIENS ATCs by adding sustainability assessment and collaboration perspectives to SPP.

Sustainability assessment and reporting is a process aimed at measuring an organisation’s progress towards sustainability, communicating the efforts in the sustainability dimensions, and assessing how the organisation influences, and is influenced by, expectations about sustainable development. Collaboration in SPP can develop long-term partnerships between stakeholders and contribute to addressing sustainable needs through public procurement, as jointly defining the technical, non-technical, and socio-cultural specifications of the tender to promote SPP.

Sustainable development is a change process in which the societies improve their quality of life, reaching a dynamic equilibrium between the economic and social aspects, while protecting, caring for and improving the natural environment. This integration and equilibrium among these three dimensions must be understood, embedded, and transferred from this generation to future ones.

Prof. Rodrigo Lozano, from the University of Gävle, SAPIENS Lead Researcher

The training was hosted by the University of Gävle, in Gävle (Sweden), and took place on June 15-16, 2022.

The training sessions were chaired by SAPIENS Lead Researcher Prof. Rodrigo Lozano, from the University of Gävle.

Session 1: Sustainability and Sustainable Development Perspectives

The first session of SAPIENS ATC4 started with Rodrigo Lozano presenting the debates over the benefits of development worldwide, including the large increase in economic activities and the rise in individual income. He also highlighted the economic, environmental, and social issues that arose from that development, considering their impacts throughout generations.

Dr. Maria Barreiro-Gen, from the University of Gävle, followed with her explanation of the sustainable development principles and the difference between the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development. She also shared the idea of sustainability as a goal and sustainable development as a path to reaching sustainable societies.

Rodrigo Lozano concluded the session by presenting the sustainability perspectives and focus, including the need to develop stakeholders’ engagement to promote sustainability – and to balance this engagement. He highlighted the holistic perspective of sustainability, in which the four dimensions of sustainability (economic, environmental, social, and time) are combined to promote sustainable development, considering societies’ past, present, and future.

Many people use sustainability and sustainable development as synonyms, but they are different. Sustainable development is more like a pathway to sustainability, which is a dynamic goal being reassessed every day.

Dr. Maria Barreiro-Gen, from the University of Gävle

The recording of Session 1 can be accessed below.

Session 2: Life Cycle Assessment and Ecoefficiency

Session 2, presented by Rodrigo Lozano, started with the discussion of the concept and perspectives of life cycle assessment, a technique used to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts of products, processes, or activities. He also presented the idea of life cycle management, a business management approach that can be used to improve organisations’ sustainable performance, as it provides continuous improvement along the product life cycle. This approach reduces the assessment part of life cycle assessment but keeps awareness and integration of the life cycle into routine business processes. Then he discussed life cycle thinking, a concept that goes beyond the traditional focus n production sites and manufacturing processes so that the environmental, social, and economic impact of a product over its entire life cycle is included.

This session was concluded with the discussion of the concepts of eco-efficiency, which focused on applying economic and environmental indicators while assessing an organisation’s performance through a products perspective, and eco-effectiveness, directed to monitoring the sustainability impact through an organisational perspective, addressing the entire system.

What we want to do with a life cycle thinking is to reduce a product’s resource use and emissions to the environment as well as improve its socio-economic performance throughout the entire life cycle. This may facilitate links between the economic, social and environmental dimensions within an organization and throughout its entire value chain.

Prof. Rodrigo Lozano, from the University of Gävle, SAPIENS Lead Researcher

The recording of Session 2 can be accessed below.

Session 3: Sustainability Assessment and Reporting

In Session 3, Rodrigo Lozano started presenting the history of sustainability assessment and reporting. He highlighted the main purposes of sustainability assessment and reporting: To assess the current state of an organisation’s economic, environmental, and social dimensions and to communicate these efforts to stakeholders. Other purposes of sustainability assessment and reporting were also presented, such as assessing sustainability performance over time, benchmarking against other companies, and demonstrating how the organisation influences, and is influenced by expectations about sustainable development, working as a base for planning changes for sustainability. He discussed sustainaibility assessment and reporting status, paths, report types, and guidelines.

Maria Barreiro-Gen followed with her presentation of the Environmental Management Systems (EMS), which are designed to help manage resources, improve the reliability and credibility of the environmental policy, and serve as an environmental credential for customers, assessing the environmental impact of operations of organisations and improving their environmental performance. She discussed the ISO 140001, one of the most common EMS, highlighting its advantages and disadvantages as a managerial approach based on a circular and continuous improvement system.

Rodrigo Lozano presented the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines, based on long-term, multi-stakeholder and international process, organised in terms of economic, environmental, and social performances, with over 150 performance indicators. Then he closed this session discussing the challenges and critiques to sustainability assessment and reporting, concluding that this is a important tool to foster sustainability, particularly when looking at the interactions between categories and issues.

There are many initiatives, tools, and approaches that organisations can use to contribute to sustainability. The Environmental Management Systems (EMS) are an example of tools that can be used for that, related to the idea of assessment and improvement. (…) The ISO 14001, as an EMS, do not consider the economic and social dimensions, so if an organisation wants to use this tool in order to contribute to sustainability in a holistic way, it needs to complement the ISO 14001 with other tools.

Dr. Maria Barreiro-Gen, from the University of Gävle

The recording of Session 3 can be accessed below.

Session 4: Responsible Procurement: Driving Impact Through Transparency and Dialogue

Session 4 discussed the experience of the Electronics Watch, a SAPIENS Network partner organisation, in developing sustainable public procurement (SPP) through transparency and dialogue. This session, presented by Peter Pawlick and Kate Sullivan from the Electronics Watch, highlighted the challenges and drivers for implementing SPP. They cited examples from SPP of information and communication technology (ICT), characterized by the complexity of its supply chain, but with an overlap of key industries that can be good leverage for SPP. Among the lessons learned from their experience, there were emphasized an integration of due diligence into SPP to mitigate risks of violations, market engagement, and dialogue between buyers and suppliers.

Public buyers have to create an incentive structure whereby the suppliers know that transparency is demanded and there is a system of continuous improvement. The idea is not to eliminate the risks entirely, but make sure that they can be systemically addressed.

Kate Sullivan, from the Electronics Watch

The government is a big buyer and has to use this power, making their procurers aware that they have this power. Sometimes it makes actually sense to not only talk about human rights issues or labour rights issues but to tell the procurers that they have the power to make a difference.

Peter Pawlicki, from the Electronics Watch

The recording of Session 4 can be accessed below.

Session 5: Systems Thinking

Session 5 was preceded by an interactive activity, the fish game. In this game, related to the tragedy of the commons and the harm of self-interesting behaviours, Rodrigo Lozano and Maria Barreiro-Gen introduced the concept of systems thinking, presenting the idea that only seeing parts of a system means failing at comprehending the whole system.

In this session, Rodrigo Lozano discussed the relevance of systems thinking theory for sustainability, including its contributions to understanding the interdependences, interactions, and the interconnectedness of an organisation, and among organisations, as well as the roles of individuals within and across the boundaries. He also presented the theory of organisations as a social system, discussing different types of organisations, their elements, their stakeholders, and the roles of groups and individuals, including their impacts on organisations and societies. The session was closed with a link between systems thinking and sustainable thinking, based on a holistic perspective, a collaboration between stakeholders, and a trans-disciplinary approach.

We have to think beyond our disciplines. Our disciplines just give us some mental models but we have to go beyond that and connect to other disciplines. In this new thinking, we need to use systems thinking, life cycle thinking, holistic thinking, co-existing with nature, sustainability, whole-to-parts, collaboration, and trans-disciplinarism.

Prof. Rodrigo Lozano, from the University of Gävle, SAPIENS Lead Researcher

The recording of Session 5 can be accessed below.

Session 6: Collaboration theory

In Session 6, Maria Barreiro-Gen presented the collaboration theory, including some insights from economic theories that support the use of collaboration to foster sustainability. She discussed how coordination, cooperation, and collaboration are behaviours organised in a communication pyramid, in which collaboration represents a purposeful relationship in which all stakeholders work towards a shared outcome. She also highlighted the benefits and costs of collaboration according to empirical research, concluding that there is a need of balancing the benefits and challenges of collaboration to contribute to the transition toward more sustainable organisations and societies.

The optimal solution of collaboration for organisational sustainability is where the factors are balanced in such a way that there are sufficient benefits, but fewer challenges, in an optimal collaboration. However, if collaboration is excessive, then the challenges increase significantly, and, thus, there are limits to the growth of collaboration.

Dr. Maria Barreiro-Gen, from the University of Gävle

The recording of Session 6 can be accessed below.

Session 7: Collaboration in SPP

Session 7, presented by Rodrigo Lozano, linked the insights presented in the previous sections to discuss the potentiality of collaboration to address sustainability issues through public procurement. He highlighted the differences between traditional public procurement and SPP and presented results from his research regarding how collaboration can drive sustainability in public procurement, such as developing circular economy solutions and innovations through interactions between stakeholders during the entire procurement process. He also presented the relevance of collaboration for developing technical, non-technical, and socio-cultural specifications during the early stages of SPP, addressing the complexity of SPP by holistic approaches supported by systems thinking and life cycle thinking.

We need to develop collaboration between buyers, suppliers, facilitators, universities, and other stakeholders, and this is a complex process. That is why we need systems thinking: sustainable public procurement is a complex process. It includes sustainability and its economic, environmental, social, and time dimensions with their interlinkages; civil society, public sector organisations, companies, and hybrid organisations, all interconnected; individuals, groups, their organisations, and their systems. Then you put everybody together!

Prof. Rodrigo Lozano, from the University of Gävle, SAPIENS Lead Researcher

The recording of Session 7 can be accessed below.

Session 8: Procurement-driven sustainability from a holistic perspective – a practical example

ATC4 was closed by a presentation from Sigrid Petterssén and Anette Jonsäll, from Region Gävleborg, about their project that develops SPP, supported by a holistic view of the procurement work to develop innovative solutions. They presented their work model, which is a knowledge-driven process based on needs, trust, collaboration, risk analysis, and market analysis. They highlighted that developing SPP and innovative solutions is a time-demanding process, with special efforts on preparatory work. They also presented results from a collaborative SPP process of textiles in the healthcare sector, including lower environmental impact and costs, as well as increased participation during the process, including end-users.

Public procurement can result in innovations, improvements in the organization’s structures, provide better control over the business, and increased sustainability. A higher quality of life can be developed through public procurement, as we saw in our experience.

Anette Jonsäll, from the Region Gävleborg

A collaborative process becomes quicker when more people get involved, because people like to work together and recognize that they are part of good results. Then they can understand the importance of their work and realize that the sum of knowledge is creating good results, as a team.

Sigrid Petterssén, from the Region Gävleborg

The recording of Session 8 can be accessed below.

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