Growing concerns regarding sustainability have led the construction sector to adopt various policy instruments for reducing the impacts caused by construction activities. One such policy instrument includes impact assessment, which enables the construction sector to evaluate the environmental consequences of proposed developments at project (environmental impact assessment) and strategic (strategic environmental assessment) level. In recent years, the construction sector has also adopted green public procurement, which is a process whereby contracting authorities aim to procure services and products that meet environmental requirements. In certain contexts, green public procurement has extended to sustainable public procurement, which involves the incorporation of both environmental and social considerations in the procurement of services and products. Promoting sustainability in the constructor sector is a significant challenge. This challenge is primarily due to the requirement of high levels of cooperation among project stakeholders, on the one hand, and a lack of coordination between project planning and implementation on the other hand. Therefore, procurement plays a significant role as it establishes the tone for the interaction between contracting authorities and contractors. The overall aim of this thesis is to bolster the knowledge of promoting sustainability in the construction sector, with the specific aim of analysing the ways in which policy instruments such as environmental impact assessment and green public procurement can be reinforced to improve the coordination between planning and the implementation of sustainability considerations. This thesis conceptualises an inter-link between impact assessment and green public procurement, and identifies the opportunities to develop the inter-link. It is appropriate to plan for green public procurement at the pre-decision phase of an environmental impact assessment. The inter-link can be strengthened by involving contractors in planning for green and sustainable public procurement. One way to involve contractors is with the aid of competitive dialogue procedure, which is a procurement procedure that allows contracting authorities to hold discussions with contractors regarding the authority’s requirements. This study strengthens the conceptualisation that competitive dialogue procedure can facilitate green and sustainable public procurement. The various elements in a competitive dialogue procedure can enable the contracting authorities to ensure the consistency between the weight for environmental considerations in contract award criteria and the relevant preferences. This thesis also discusses key concerns for progress towards sustainable public procurement, which includes among others the incorporation of sustainability values in procurement decisions. In addition, this study identified certain discourses on future trends for green and sustainable public procurement. The discourses provide an opportunity for reflection, and thereby indicate that analytical support is required to develop criteria in a way that enables the evaluation of sustainable public procurement against the background of sustainability and justice regarding natural capital. Innovation must be promoted with a focus on sustainability values. Moreover, green or sustainable public procurement must be discussed between contracting authorities and contractors in light of its contribution to sustainability. / <p>QC 20140509</p>

Public procurement is often regarded as rigid, which is why competitive dialogue was implemented. It was also believed to give rise to technical innovations and to create beneficial buying conditions for the public sector. However, many people are sceptic of it, arguing that it does not meet the principles of equal treatment of suppliers and transparency. This thesis seeks to investigate the potential of competitive dialogue and to identify its main challenges. A study of Sweden’s first large infrastructure contract, the Kvarnholmen link, procured with competitive dialogue was therefore undertaken, as well as an extensive literature review. The results show that competitive dialogue is beneficial in several ways: It involves contractors at an early stage and encourages them to find the best solutions to the lowest price. The suppliers get to adapt their tenders to their competence and to take benefit from it. This is a model that seems to have a great potential to improve both public procurement and urban planning.

La crise économique et sociale que nous connaissons actuellement met en lumière la nécessité d’une action publique volontariste et, s’agissant des collectivités territoriales qui sont les principaux acteurs de l’investissement public, l’exigence d’une politique résolument tournée vers l’investissement de long terme, comme moteur de l’économie et de la reprise. Focalisé sur la notion de PPP, d’un part dans son acceptation la plus large, l’expression « partenariat public-privé » ou encore « PPP », désigne une formule générique englobant toutes formes de coopération entre la sphère publique et privée. D’autre part, utilisée dans un sens plus strict que celui de notion générique englobant toutes formes de coopération entre le public et le privé, la notion de PPP renvoie à une technique contractuelle ayant pour objet de confier au secteur prive la conception, le financement, la construction et l’exploitation d’un bien ou d’un ouvrage d’intérêt collectif. / The economic and social crisis we are currently experiencing highlights the need for a proactive public policy and, in the case of local authorities who are the main actors of public investment, the requirement of a policy resolutely turned towards the ' long-term investment as a motor engine of the economy and the recovery. Focused on the concept of PPP, a share in its broadest sense, the term «public -private partnership» or «PPP» refers to a generic formula encompassing all forms of cooperation between public and private sphere. On the other hand , used a more stringent than generic term encompassing all forms of cooperation between the public and private sense, the term refers to a contractual PPP technique for entrust the private sector to design, finance, construct and operate of a well or a work of collective interest.

Les contrats globaux de la commande publique, catégorie de contrats constituée au fur et à mesure de leur création, jouent un rôle majeur dans l’action des personnes publiques et des collectivités territoriales notamment. Le contrat de partenariat est devenu l’élément phare de cette famille d’instruments juridiques. Ces derniers se sont superposés au point de constituer un ensemble difficilement lisible pour les collectivités territoriales sans que cela ne ralentisse leur utilisation et leur succès. L’analyse du cas de la ville de Lourdes, de projets portés par des collectivités territoriales aux importances diverses ainsi que de l’utilisation par l’Etat des contrats globaux sont autant d’exemples qui ont mis en évidence la nécessité de procéder à un véritable état des lieux. Après une décennie de pratique et d’observation des contrats de partenariat notamment, il apparaît, plus que jamais, nécessaire de traduire le bilan qui a été réalisé en une véritable clarification des catégories de contrats de la commande publique. L’adoption des directives marchés et concessions lors de l’année 2014 et l’arrivée d’une ordonnance relative aux marchés publics en 2015 mettent en exergue l’actualité de la question ainsi que l’importance de procéder à une réorganisation d’envergure du droit français de la commande publique. / Comprehensive contracts in public procurement constitute a class of contracts that have been formed gradually since their creation and play a major role, for instance in the action of public entities and local authorities. Partnership agreements became the main element of this family of legal instruments. They superimposed to compose a group that is hardly comprehensible by territorial authorities, which minimise their utilisation and success. Analyses of the case of Lourdes, of projects led by local authorities as well as the use of comprehensive agreements by the government are all examples that highlight the necessity of carrying out a real overview of the situation. After a decade of practicing and observing the use of public-private partnerships, it appears that the necessity of translating the achieved assessment into a real clarification of the different types of public procurements is more important than ever. The adoption of public procurement directives and concession directives in 2004 and the order relating to public procurement setting up in 2015 bring out the pertinence of the subject as well as the importance of proceeding to a major reorganisation of the French public procurement law.