Transport infrastructures such as roads are assets for the society as they not only ensure mobility but also strengthen society’s economy. Considerable amount of energy and materials, that include bitumen, aggregates and asphalt, are required to build and maintain roads. Improper utilization of energy and/or use of materials may lead to more waste and higher costs. The impact on the environment cannot be neglected either. Life cycle assessment (LCA) as a method can be used to assess the environmental impacts of a road system over its entire life time. Studying the life cycle perspective of roads can help us improve the technology in order to achieve a system that has a lower impact on the environment. There are number of LCA tools available. However, implementation of such tools is still unseen in real road projects. This clearly indicates that there are gaps which are needed to be filled in order to bring these tools into practice. An open road LCA framework was developed for the asphalt roads in order to help in decision support at the late project planning stage such as that related to the green procurement. The framework takes into account the construction, maintenance and end of life phases and focuses on energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Threshold values for the production of some additives were also determined to show how LCA tools can help material suppliers to improve the road materials production processes and the road authorities to set limits on the use of different materials based on the environmental criteria. Additive consideration and feedstock energy in road LCAs were also identified as gaps that were looked in detail. The attributes that are important to consider in an asphalt road LCA that seeks to serve as a decision support in a procurement situation are described. A brief literature review was carried out that focused on project LCAs, and specifically those considering pavements, as this level is assumed to be appropriate for questions relevant in a procurement situation. Following the different standards; road LCAs developed all over the world have generated a lot of knowledge and the studies have been different from each other such as in terms of goals and system boundaries. Hence, the patterns observed have been very different from study to study. It was also difficult to assess the decision support level for which the various LCA frameworks or tools were developed. It is important to define system boundaries based on where in the system the decision support is needed. For LCA to be useful for decision support in a procurement situation, it is important to have a clear understanding of the attributes that constitute the life cycle phases and how data of high quality for them are obtained. The level of consistency and transparency of road LCAs becomes increasingly important in pre-procurement and procurement situations. The key attributes used in a road LCA should mirror the material properties used in a pavement design and therefore be closely linked to the performance of the road in its life cycle. From the different case studies, it was found that asphalt production and transportation of materials are usually highest in the energy and GHG emissions chain. It is highly favorable to have the quarry site, the asphalt plant and the construction site not far from each other and to use the electricity that has been produced in an efficient way. Based on the laboratory test results, it is shown that the effects of chemical warm mix asphalt additives (WMAA)s must be evaluated on a case by case basis since WMAA interaction with the aggregate surface mineralogy appears to play a significant role and thus affects its long term structural behavior. Using the material properties obtained from the Superpave indirect tensile test (IDT) results, pavement thickness design was done in which Arlanda aggregate based asphalt mixtures resulted in thinner pavements as compared to Skärlunda aggregate based asphalt mixtures for the same design life period. Energy (feedstock and expended) saving and reduction in GHG emissions were also seen with addition of WMAA, for both aggregate type cases, based on the data used. Importantly, the results presented illustrate the importance of a systems based LCA approach for evaluating the sustainability for different design and construction options. In this context, having actual pavement material properties as the key attributes in the LCA enables a pavement focused assessment of environmental costs associated with different design options. / <p>QC 20141118</p>

Problem – Companies are increasingly focusing on sustainability issues in response to internal and external pressure. Research on sustainable performance of focal companies is vast; however there is a lack of guidelines for managing sustainability in extended supply chains. Scholars claim a need for additional research on intra- and inter-organizational diffusion of best sustainable practices. Besides, the outcomes of sustainable sourcing practices are still uncertain. The gap between potential benefits of sustainable sourcing and actual performance is attributed to lack of capabilities, instruments, and efficient processes. Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore existing sustainable sourcing practices which are used by leading multinational companies. Based on the obtained knowledge we aim to develop a framework that will suite as a guideline for enforcing sustainable sourcing practices. Method – The research has been conducted through the method of grounded theory, enabling the researchers to constructively interpret data from documentary primary data and semi-structured interviews. This approach was utilized in order to explore what are the most common practices of managing sustainable sourcing applied by the companies awarded as Industry leaders by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Conclusion We found that a commonly accepted approach towards managing and enforcing sustainable sourcing is absent both in theoretical discourse and practice. However, the most frequently mentioned tools and approaches were defined. They include the adoption of suppliers’ code of conduct, establishment of dedicated sustainability departments, procurement personnel training, suppliers’ capability building, risk assessment and categorization of suppliers, IT platforms for information sharing, supplier self-assessment, audit, joint projects with suppliers, meetings and conferences, and suppliers’ scorecards. Finally, we developed a Sustainable Sourcing Enforcement framework which could serve as a guideline to enforce supplier’s commitment to act sustainably. The framework consists of five chronologically connected pillars: Objectives alignment, Commitment creation, Supplier selection, Ongoing development and Work with stakeholders.

Die Befragung „Ist-Stand der OP-Textilienversorgung in deutschen Krankenhäusern“, die eingebettet ist in das Forschungsvorhaben „Evaluierung von OP-Textilien nach hygienischen, ökologischen und ökonomischen Kriterien“, hat zum Ziel, den gegenwärtigen Stand der OP-Textilienversorgung zu erfassen. Für die Befragung, die sowohl web-basiert als auch postalisch im Zeitraum 11/2008 bis 02/2009 durchgeführt worden ist, wurden vorab alle Krankenhäuser und Kliniken in Deutschland kontaktiert, um den jeweiligen Ansprechpartner für die Beschaffung von OP-Textilien zu erhalten. Der Fragebogen gliedert sich in drei Teile: Abschnitt A: OP-Textilien mit den Unterabschnitten Allgemeines, Ausschreibung von OP-Textilien, OP-Mäntel, OP-Abdeckungen, OP-Kit-Packs, Ökonomische Analyse der OP-Textilienversorgung und Ökologische Bewertung der OP-Textilienversorgung; Abschnitt B: Umweltschutz im Krankenhaus und Abschnitt C: Angaben zum Krankenhaus. Zu den zentralen Ergebnissen der Befragung zählen, dass das Kriterium Versorgungssicherheit das wichtigste Kriterium bei der Ausschreibung ist, gefolgt von Zuverlässigkeit und Reinigungsqualität; dass sowohl Einweg-OP-Mäntel als auch -OP-Abdeckungen häufiger angewendet werden als Mehrweg-Textilien; dass der Tragekomfort der Mehrweg-Mäntel als deutlich besser eingestuft wird als der der Einweg-Mäntel. Ein ähnliches Ergebnis zeigt sich bei der Umweltfreundlichkeit von OP-Mänteln und OP-Abdeckungen. Weiterhin zeigte die Untersuchung, dass eine ökonomische Bewertung bisher häufiger vorgenommen wurde als eine ökologische Bewertung. Bei ökonomischen Analysen, die in den meisten Fällen durch ein krankenhausinternes Team durchgeführt wurden, wurden weitestgehend die Anschaffungskosten/ Miet- bzw. Leasingrate als Kriterium herangezogen. Im Rahmen der ökologischen Bewertung sind vor allem Kriterien wie schadstoffarmer Abfall, geringe Umweltbelastung und wenig schädliche Stoffe von Bedeutung. Insgesamt wird der Umweltschutz tendenziell als wichtig eingeschätzt, wobei die am häufigsten vertretenen Umweltschutzmaßnahmen die Beachtung von Umweltkriterien bei der Beschaffung, die/der Umweltbeauftragte/r und die Zertifizierung nach ISO 14001 sind.

Ziel des Projekts Green eBusiness ist es, auf der einen Seite bestehende Hemmnisse für umweltfreundliche Beschaffung in Unternehmen zu ergründen und auf der anderen Seite daraus Anforderungen an eBusiness Konzeptionen abzuleiten, die diese erfüllen müssen, um solche Hemmnisse abzubauen bzw. deren Entstehung zu vermeiden. Daher wird ein Modell zur Identifikation und Bewertung bestehender Hemmnisse im Beschaffungsprozess von Unternehmen entwickelt, das die Gründe der bisherigen Marktdurchdringung umweltfreundlicher Produkte und Dienstleistungen erklären soll. Hierzu wird die im Rahmen des abgeschlossenen EU-Projektes RELIEF - Environmental relief potential of urban action on avoidance and detoxification of waste streams through green public procurement entwickelte Hemmnisanalyse angewendet, um in den 500 größten deutschen Unternehmen Hemmnisse für umweltfreundliche Beschaffung zu identifizieren und zu bewerten. Ein zweiter Teil der empirischen Studie befasst sich mit der Nutzung elektronischer Medien zur Unterstützung von Beschaffungsprozessen. In diesem Bereich werden Anwendungsgewohnheiten, Anwendungshäufigkeiten sowie eventuell in den Unternehmen existierende Hemmnisse untersucht. Aufbauend auf den Ergebnissen dieser Hemmnisanalyse sollen auf Basis von Szenarien eBusiness-Konzeptionen (weiter-)entwickelt werden, die geeignet sind, die identifizierten Hemmnisse zu überwinden.

Žalieji pirkimai – tai tokie pirkimai, kurie integruoja aplinkosauginius reikalavimus į viešojo pirkimo sąlygas, siekdami sumažinti neigiamą poveikį aplinkai. Žalieji pirkimai yra nauja sfera viešojo administravimo studijose. Nors koncepcija teoriškai yra pagrįsta ir analizuota, tačiau praktiniai jos įgyvendinimo aspektai literatūroje nėra plačiai analizuoti, kadangi Lietuvoje žaliųjų pirkimų tiesioginis reglamentavimas pradėtas 2007 m. antroje pusėje. Darbo tikslas yra išanalizuoti žaliųjų pirkimų politikos įgyvendinimą teisinio reglamentavimo, instituciniu, finansiniu aspektu, išskiriant įgyvendinimą įtvirtinančius instrumentus. Darbas sudarytas iš penkių dalių, kurios pagal analizės objektą suskirstytos į smulkesnius skyrelius. Pirmajame skyriuje aptariamas viešosios politikos ciklas, kurio vienas iš etapų yra įgyvendinimas, aprašomi galimi įgyvendinimo mechanizmai ir instrumentai, kuriais remiasi žaliųjų pirkimų politikos įgyvendinimas. Antrajame skyriuje analizuojama ES reguliacinė politika, kurią pasitelkiama įgyvendinant žaliuosius pirkimus, bei Komisijos vaidmuo įgyvendinimo etape; teisinė bazė – ES direktyvos, jų perkėlimas į LR įstatymus, svarbiausios ES ir Lietuvos strategijos, programos, skirtos žaliųjų pirkimų įgyvendinimui. Trečiajame skyriuje nagrinėjamos Lietuvos institucijos, dalyvaujančios įgyvendinimo procese ir nevyriausybinių organizacijų veikla. Kadangi žaliųjų pirkimų įgyvendinimas yra lėšų reikalaujanti sritis, apžvelgiami įgyvendinimo finansiniai... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Green procurement is a way of public procurement, which integrates environmental considerations in public procurement process, seeking to reduce negative influence on environment. The relevancy of this paper is determined by novelty of green procurement policy in public administration studies. Even the concept is theoretically grounded but practical aspects of implementation are not strongly analysed, because reglamentation in Lithuania was started in second part of 2007. The subject of this paper focuses on analysis of green procurement policy reglamentation, institutional, financial aspects, and exclusion instruments of implementation. The paper is composed of the five main parts which are divided into smaller sections depending on the analyzing subject. The system of public policy cycle, which includes implementation stage and instruments of implementation, which are used in green procurement policy are analysed in the first part. EU regulation policy and Commission role in implementation of green procurements are analysed in the second part. This part of paper reveals policy reglamentation in EU directives and transfer of it to Lithuanian legislation. The most important are EU and Lithuanians strategies, programs, which implement green procurements. Lithuanian institutions and NGO are analysed in the third part of paper. This part focuses on financial instruments, because green procuremement is financal resources required policy... [to full text]

Submitted by Seiji Fetter (seijifetter@gmail.com) on 2016-10-10T09:59:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 tese final vf.pdf: 2592128 bytes, checksum: 7db26c6d9cb0caf0c5c70fe19a539181 (MD5) / Rejected by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br), reason: Bom dia Seiji, Por favor, tirar o acento do Getulio e caixa alta nas palavras (AGRADECIMENTOS, RESUMO, ABSTRACT E SUMÁRIO). Abraços. Suzi 11 3799-7876 on 2016-10-10T13:11:57Z (GMT) / Submitted by Seiji Fetter (seijifetter@gmail.com) on 2016-10-10T13:23:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 tese c4trad4.pdf: 2179037 bytes, checksum: b10b827519716013f54a56401830e9b8 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br) on 2016-10-10T13:24:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 tese c4trad4.pdf: 2179037 bytes, checksum: b10b827519716013f54a56401830e9b8 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br) on 2016-10-10T13:25:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 tese c4trad4.pdf: 2179037 bytes, checksum: b10b827519716013f54a56401830e9b8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-10T13:31:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese c4trad4.pdf: 2179037 bytes, checksum: b10b827519716013f54a56401830e9b8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-09-12 / This thesis studies three topics on the effects of regulation and policies on prices, quality and sustainability. The first chapter analyses the incentives that fuel stations have as they choose whether to supply a low-quality or high-quality fuel and how this choice and prices are affected by being under a exclusive contract with the distributor. The second chapter estimates the contribution of the relative fall in the ICMS for ethanol in Minas Gerais for the state sales of the fuels emplyoing a synthetic control approach, based on the fact that the state promoted this tax reduction one year prior to most of the other brazilian states. The third chapter investigates how the Minas Gerais State adopted a greep procurement policy by using restricting some items to be 'sustainable', and how this affected participation and bids in electronic reverse price auctions. / Esta tese realiza três estudos sobre os efeitos de regulações e políticas sobre preços, qualidade e sustentabilidade. O primeiro capítulo analisa os incentivos que postos de combustível têm ao escolher fornecer um combustível de qualidade alta ou baixa se estão sujeitos a um contrato de exclusividade com uma distribuidora, bem como seu efeito sobre os preços. O segundo capítulo estima a contribuição da queda do ICMS relativo etanol-gasolina em Minas Gerais para as vendas estaduais dos combustíveis através da metodologia de controle sintético, aproveitando o fato de que o estado se adiantou à maioria das outras unidades de federação em alterar suas alíquotas. Por fim, o terceiro capítulo investiga como o Estado de Minas Gerais passou a restringir as compras públicas de certos materiais adotando critérios de sustentabilidade (itens 'verdes') e seus efeitos sobre a participação em licitações e lances dos potenciais fornecedores.

Efforts to reduce negative impacts from consumption and production include voluntary market-based initiatives. Examples are the concept of eco-labelling and the concept of green procurement. These have emerged as policy instruments with great potentials to steer product innovation and purchasing decisions in a sustainable direction. This potential has been recognized by the United Nations, the European Union, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and national governments through, e.g., various programmes and schemes. The aim of this thesis is to assess current criteria development processes within eco-labelling and green procurement from a strategic sustainability perspective and to describe possible improvement potentials from such a perspective to make these instruments more supportive of sustainable product and service innovation. A previously published framework for strategic sustainable development, including a definition of sustainability and generic guidelines to inform strategies towards sustainability, is adapted and used for this purpose. Criteria development processes in two Swedish eco-labelling programmes and at a governmental expert body for green procurement are studied. This includes interviews with criteria developers, studies of process documents and a case study at the governmental expert body for green procurement in which two criteria development processes were shadowed. The result reveals several strengths but also gaps and thus potentials for improvement. The criteria development processes and the resulting criteria mostly concern the current market supply and a selection of current environmental impacts outside the context of long-term objectives. Neither sustainability nor any other clearly defined long-term objective is agreed upon, and the criteria are not structured to support procurers, suppliers and product developers in a systematic and strategic stepwise approach towards sustainability. Recommended improvements include a more thorough sustainability assessment, communication of clearer objectives, broader competence in the criteria development groups and more emphasis on the dialogue and interaction between key actors. This includes an extended view on both the product concept and actors involved. Based on this, a new criteria development prototype is suggested, which aims at widening the scope from some currently known product impacts to the remaining gap to sustainability. During its further development and implementation, the criteria development prototype will be tested in successive iterations of action research together with experienced practitioners within eco-labelling and green procurement.

Some business leaders in the manufacturing industry lack strategies to optimize green supply chain management strategies that increase profitability while reducing the carbon footprint. The lack of green supply chain strategies sub optimizes the use of resources business leaders use to meet their financial goals. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore successful green supply chain strategies leaders used to increase profitability while reducing the carbon footprint. The participants were 7 business leaders in one manufacturing organization headquartered in Massachusetts who have sophisticated green supply chain strategies in place. The natural resource-based view theory was the conceptual framework for this study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and organizational documents. Through thematic analysis, 3 key themes emerged: environmental management strategies, profit-increasing strategies, and governance strategies. The findings of this study might be of value to business leaders to reduce costs and create sustainable, competitive supply chains using responsible methods. The implications for social change include the potential for leaders to preserve finite natural resources for future generations and reduce the carbon footprint of manufacturing organizations.

Ziel des Projekts Green eBusiness ist es, auf der einen Seite bestehende Hemmnisse für umweltfreundliche Beschaffung in Unternehmen zu ergründen und auf der anderen Seite daraus Anforderungen an eBusiness Konzeptionen abzuleiten, die diese erfüllen müssen, um solche Hemmnisse abzubauen bzw. deren Entstehung zu vermeiden. Daher wird ein Modell zur Identifikation und Bewertung bestehender Hemmnisse im Beschaffungsprozess von Unternehmen entwickelt, das die Gründe der bisherigen Marktdurchdringung umweltfreundlicher Produkte und Dienstleistungen erklären soll. Hierzu wird die im Rahmen des abgeschlossenen EU-Projektes RELIEF - Environmental relief potential of urban action on avoidance and detoxification of waste streams through green public procurement entwickelte Hemmnisanalyse angewendet, um in den 500 größten deutschen Unternehmen Hemmnisse für umweltfreundliche Beschaffung zu identifizieren und zu bewerten. Ein zweiter Teil der empirischen Studie befasst sich mit der Nutzung elektronischer Medien zur Unterstützung von Beschaffungsprozessen. In diesem Bereich werden Anwendungsgewohnheiten, Anwendungshäufigkeiten sowie eventuell in den Unternehmen existierende Hemmnisse untersucht. Aufbauend auf den Ergebnissen dieser Hemmnisanalyse sollen auf Basis von Szenarien eBusiness-Konzeptionen (weiter-)entwickelt werden, die geeignet sind, die identifizierten Hemmnisse zu überwinden.

In recent years, the general awareness of the environmental impacts that industrial production gives rise to has radically increased throughout the world. Finding ways to minimise these impacts has become a major concern of the authorities in many countries. In order to promote a more sustainable industrial production, different incentives can be used. Among these incentives, the consideration of environmental issues in public procurement is increasingly being emphasised. While much attention regarding sustainable procurement has centred on the purchase of products, this thesis focuses on green procurement of construction contracts. The construction industry is a major contributor to environmental pollution. It consumes about half of all resources humans take from nature and accounts for about 25 – 40 per cent of all energy used and about 30 – 50 per cent of all waste generated in OECD countries. In the procurement of products, the environmental impacts of the available products can be estimated and compared, for example by using tools such as life cycle assessments. When construction contracts are procured, assessing the suppliers’ environmental capabilities can be more challenging, as the contract to be procured has not yet been performed. However, at the same time, there are considerably more opportunities to steer the construction towards more environmentally friendly alternatives. In the thesis, it is suggested that the environmental requirements and the environmental criteria for tender evaluation should be used in combination, in order to safeguard environmental performance in the construction project and at the same time stimulate a green development within the industrial sector. In addition, the role of the client in ensuring that the environmental requirements are fulfilled during construction work is emphasised. / QC 20101125