The fifth SAPIENS Network’s Advanced Training Course (ATC5) focused on the implementation of practical tools that are used by contracting authorities as technical specifications in public procurement, with the aim to support the implementation of a more sustainable supply chain.

The event was hosted by the Faculty of Organization and Management at the Lodz University of Technology in Lodz, Poland, on 19-21 October 2022, and chaired by SAPIENS Network Lead Researcher Prof. Malgorzata Koszewska. This two-day course was organized in hybrid mode with more than 20 external participants.

The training introduced the role of exemplary tools, such as ISO standards, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), Ecolabels, and Ecodesign, and how they are applied, for example, in the energy and textiles sectors. The discussions also covered how product design impacts sustainability, as well as the importance of human rights in supply chains.

The ATC5 complemented the previous SAPIENS Network training by exploring the practical aspects of the tools when being used in public procurement and how their effective implementation can serve as guidance, from the management science perspective.

Session 1: Standards for Sustainable Procurement

The training session began with an opening lecture from Prof. Zenon Foltynowicz from Poznań University of Economics and Business. Prof. Foltynowicz presented the important function of standards for achieving sustainability in public procurement, through a detailed analysis of the ISO 20400 standard. It referred to Directive 2014/24/EU on public procurement which allows contracting authorities to refer to standards in the procurement process through technical specifications. The aim is to build a common understanding between buyers and suppliers to identify works, supplies and services, cost analysis, as well as ensure equality and transparency during the preparation of procurement documents.

The International Standard Organization for Standardization (ISO) published ISO 20400 in April 2017 as a guidance standard for sustainable public procurement. By integrating sustainable development into procurement strategies and policies, it is expected that companies will contribute significantly to the implementation of sustainable development, in line with the UN 2030 Agenda of SDG 12.7: “Promote sustainable public procurement practices”.

The discussion specifically emphasized the role of ISO 20400 and the key ideas that stem from Clauses 4-7 and that can help contracting authorities in the implementation process. Those clauses refer to the following: the fundamentals, which include principles, core subjects, drivers, and key considerations (Clause 4); policy and strategy in order to align the procurement with organizational objectives and goals (Clause 5); the enablers on how to engage stakeholders and how to measure the performance (Clause 6); as well as the whole process itself (Clause 7).

To conclude, Prof. Foltynowicz stressed the importance of implementing ISO 20400 in practice, especially in the context of public procurement. The standards can help the public authorities to meet their responsibility to respect human and labour rights, legal environmental obligations, and economic equity within and throughout the supply chain. Furthermore, other benefits of implementing ISO 20400 in public procurement are to foster innovation through new and developed products and services, as well as improve talent acquisition and retention.

The full recording of Session 1 can be accessed below:

Session 2: Electricity in Life Cycle Analyses and Green Public Procurement

The second session was presented by Prof. Anna Lewandowska from Poznań University of Economics and Business. She explained how Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) intertwines with Carbon Footprint (CF) calculations. In the beginning, she illustrated how energy intensity is involved in all life stages of products, from raw materials to end of life, while specifying electricity consumption in each stage. She explored some product sectors as examples, such as textiles which consumed electricity during the use phase through laundering process, or food and pharmaceutical products which need energy for coolling storage during distribution.

Her presentation discussed how electricity also has its own life cycle, by distinguishing and comparing the various types of electricity based on their sources, such as coal, gas, water, wind, and sun. The goal of the analysis was to describe how much each of these sources impacted the rise of greenhouse gas emissions, based on the results of the calculation of LCA and CF. In this context, she further explained how it would be possible to produce more renewable electricity. The results demonstrated that coal-based power generation contributed the most to direct emissions at 86%, followed by natural gas at 76%, while renewable sources such as water, wind, and sun produced almost 0% of the emissions.

Furthermore, the session also included an in-depth investigation of electricity mix as a combination of various fuels to fulfil the needs of electricity at different scales, whether it is at the company level, national or regional (e.g., the EU), or in the wider scope of continents. By determining this scope, the electricity consumption and residues can be tracked and calculated. In order to exemplify these aspects, Prof. Lewandowska compared the results from Poland and Austria in 2021, also with the support of LCA database tools, such as GaBi Datasets. The calculation results show the total residue of the electricity mix in Poland, which is 850.21 g/kWh, a value that is sharply in contrast with Austria, which already succeed in performing 0 residual mix.

In the end, she also gave some examples of guidelines for electricity modelling, including environmental modelling, environmental product declarations, corporate carbon footprint, and the carbon footprint of the product. To supplement our understanding, she also presented examples of current EU GPP criteria for electricity, such as purchasing of at least 50% of supplied electricity from renewable energy sources and/or high-efficiency cogeneration as a subject matter of core criteria, as defined by Directive 2009/28/EC and Directive 2004/8/EC respectively.

Session 3: Ecolabeling and Sustainable Public Procurement

Dr. Joanna Witczak from Poznań University of Economics and Business led the third session and presented how Ecolabels can act as an important tool for the implementation of the circular economy, as well as sustainable production and consumption for both products and services. The implementation of sustainable public procurement has to be efficient, effective, and transparent, while also taking into consideration the triple bottom line (social, environmental, and economic aspects), where Ecolabels plays an important role in ensuring those aspects.

The EU Ecolabel is a Type I Ecolabel designed based on ISO 14024. As a tool that has been developed for more than three decades, there are approximately 87,000 products awarded using the EU Ecolabel (data as of September 2022). Concerning public procurement, the EU Ecolabels can be used as a part of technical specifications and needs to fulfil some particular conditions: they should be linked to the subject matter of the contract, based on objectively verifiable and non-discriminatory criteria, and accessible to all interested parties (Article 43 of Directive 2014/24/EU). Furthermore, the EU Ecolabels need to be established using an open and transparent procedure in which all relevant stakeholders may participate, and should be set by a third party over which the economic operator applying for the label cannot exercise a decisive influence.

As an example, Dr. Witczak took the textile industry and illustrated its environmental footprint and the impacts of supply chain design on sustainability. As one of the most harmful manufacturing sectors with 1.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually, it is important for this type of product to apply the EU GPP criteria, for example, in the Selection Criteria (SC) where the supplier can track and verify the origin of the fibre; or through Award Criteria (AC) where the potential supplier can get extra points for each 10% improvement on the minimum organic content.

In addition, some Type I Ecolabels were also presented to give an understanding of the implication of Ecolabels in Green Public Procurement, such as Blue Angel, Oeko-Tex, and Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). Furthermore, Ecolabels could become powerful and beneficial tools for sustainable public procurement if it includes the life cycle cost and social life cost.

Session 4: Ecodesign for Sustainable Supply Chains

Prof. Andrzej Marcinkowski from the Lodz University of Technology led this session and illustrated how industrial symbiosis acts as a collaboration between enterprises, where the waste of one company becomes a raw material for another through the circular economy model. He explained how it is also important to predict the benefits and losses both from the financial and environmental standpoint.

The LCA was defined as an appropriate method to verify those factors throughout the whole life cycle. For the financial aspect, the LCA and economic balance were introduced, so the loss can be avoided by choosing cheaper raw materials, reducing – if it is not removing – disposal costs, as well as transport costs. Meanwhile, it is possible to gain an environmental benefit by minimizing waste, fuel consumption, and emission, and through the implementation of resource conservation.

He presented Ecodesign as an approach to design the environmental impact of the entire life cycle of an object. Based on this definition, Prof. Marcinkowski explained that when using the waste of one company as the raw material of another (industrial symbiosis), an important aspect is the model of relative and critical distance. Considering the carbon footprint from the transportation process, the distance determines whether the symbiotic initiative is justified from an environmental perspective. Furthermore, other aspects such as human health, resources, and ecosystems also need to be considered in proactive product development, in order to improve sustainability in the supply chains.

Session 5: Verification Beyond Social Audits: The Case for Worker-Driven Monitoring in Public Procurement

The last session on the first day of ATC5 was delivered by Kate Sullivan from Electronics Watch, one of the partner organizations of the SAPIENS Network. In her presentation, she explained how important verification is for responsible public procurement, for example, as an acceptable proof of eligibility, or of compliance or conformance with a requirement, criterion, law, regulation, code, or standard. Some aspects such as legal, resource, and impacts are key considerations that the public procurement actors should take into account.

She explained that self-declarations and self-assessments are two examples of tools and methodologies that can be used for verification. Self-declarations are used as preliminary evidence regarding grounds for exclusion and qualification requirements, meanwhile, self-assessments are often used to evaluate how a supplier will ensure compliance with the contract performance conditions. Both are advantageous to ease the contracting authorities to compare data across organizations and help determine the existence of a code of conduct, policies, and management systems. However, these methodologies are less suited to verify adherence to the code of conduct, or the application or effectiveness of policies or management systems.

Some labels, certifications, and rating schemes were also presented in this session, such as SA 8000, EPEAT, TCO Certified, and The International Tin Supply Chain Initiative (ITSCI), including the advantages and shortcomings. In the end, Sullivan reminded the importance of social audits and worker-driven monitoring in performance evaluation. A social audit is a facility inspection that seeks to verify whether the operation complies with specific social and ethical responsibilities, health and safety regulations, and labour laws. The duration for the social audit process is between 1-5 days. Worker-driven monitoring instead is a methodology that evaluates performance in 12 areas related to workers’ rights and working conditions. This monitory process generally takes several months to analyse the compliance with domestic labour laws, regulations and international laws, as well as standards.

Session 6: Circular Flanders – Looking for a Just Transition Towards the Circular Economy

The first session on the second day of ATC5 was opened by Brigitte Mouligneau from OVAM, one of SAPIENS Network’s partner organizations. Through her presentation, she explained the practical implementation of the circular economy in Flanders, Belgium. As a region with a population of approximately 6,2 million people, Flanders gained its economic strength through the sectors of products and services, such as logistics, chemical and food industry, as well as engineering and health. It then raised the concern of governments and private companies to change the business models from linear to circular to support sustainability implementation.

By setting ambitious goals, Flanders set the goal to reduce the material footprint by 30% in 2030. To achieve this, strategic agendas of public-private collaborations for 6 different sectors (circular construction, chemistry and plastics, water loops, bioeconomy, food chain and manufacturing) as well as 7 levers were presented as the approach of the circular economy roadmap. Those 7 levers are policy and policy measures, circular procurement, communication & reporting, innovation & entrepreneurship, financing, job and skills, and research.

“Flanders is a frontrunner in the circular economy, and we try to achieve the goal in a full public-private partnership, not just as the effort from the government. We have an instrument that tells us different possible strategies in circular procurement and circular economy, which is a framework. With this framework, you can look at your own product and demand as a procurer, and see what kind of circular strategies could be possible for us.”

Brigitte Mouligneau

To support the targets and achieve the goals, Mouligneau presented some previous projects and events organized by OVAM, including the ongoing Flemish Green Deal Circular Construction that has been running since 2019. She also explored the current statistical data of the increased number of employments for circular economy companies in the region, which rose to 16.4% – growing about three times higher since 2008 – and contributed to the increase of the economic level in Flanders by 5.8%. Furthermore, she concluded by emphasizing that scientific research, on-site experiments, and market and policy implications are three important components for the future approach to the development of green deals.

The full recording of Session 6 can be accessed below:

Session 7: Human Rights in Sustainable Supply Chain Management – Case Study and Discussion

The final session of ATC5 discussed the way in which human rights contribute to the achievement of sustainable supply chains, particularly from the social dimension point of view. This session was introduced by Prof. Olga Martin-Ortega from the University of Greenwich who gave a lecture about Developing the State-Business Nexus: Public Procurement and Human Rights, followed by a discussion of a case study delivered by Dr. Agata Rudnicka-Reichel from the University of Lodz.

In the first part of the session, Prof. Martin-Ortega explained how human rights violations occur in public supply chains and how – besides the quality of the final products itself – social criteria should be integrated into the whole stages of the supply chain. Moreover, she explored the state-business nexus and human rights due diligence in public supply chains. She explained that concerning the UN 2030 Agenda for SDG, the state-business nexus reflects the role of governments as mega-consumers, whose purchasing power could shift markets toward sustainable production.

“Procurement has to be understood to respect human rights and action, and responsible business content through practicing supply chain due diligence. When a public buyer procures, they have to identify, prevent, mitigate, and remedy the potential and actual adverse impact on human rights and environmental law.”

Olga Martin-Ortega

In the second part of the session, Dr. Rudnicka-Reichel delivered a case study on human rights in sustainable supply chain management. By bringing the example of human rights violations of employees and service providers of a public university, she focused the discussion on the measures that can be taken by the contracting authorities, and the internal social situation in the supplier company. This case study was delivered with the aim to identify the problems and challenges, along with the possible scenarios to eliminate human rights violations in the supply chains.

The recording of the lecture part from Prof. Martin-Ortega of Session 7 can be accessed below: