The aim of the Thesis is to evaluate the effectiveness of voluntary instruments of environmental protection as an example of eco-labelling and to verify the hypothesis whether eco-labelling is an appropriate instrument to influence consumption and production of environmentally friendly products and services. Based on the characteristics of voluntary instruments of environmental protection this work defines the types of environmental labelling and evaluates under what conditions can be eco-labelling systems, both economically and environmentally, efficient. Focusing primarily on Type I environmental labelling on the basis of summaries of works already carried out, my Thesis studies and evaluates the importance and impact of this tool for consumers, businesses and the environment. The next part of the work is focused on the issue of environmentally preferable purchasing and green public procurement, mainly at the level of the Czech Republic. The practical part verifies the hypothesis about the effectiveness of eco-labelling for example, the National Programme for Labelling Environmentally friendly products and services of the Czech Republic and European Union eco-labelling system. The method of sample survey was conducted and analyzed to what extent these systems are successful at eco-labelling. The survey was conducted among consumers and users of eco-labelling - in the companies involved in the aforementioned eco-labelling systems. The survey was supplemented by the views of experts from the field and has been evaluated by their expert view on these voluntary instruments.

The need to decrease emissions from the transport sector is getting urgent and public transport can play an important role in the transition to low emission fuels. To a large extent, public transport in Europe is provided by regional authorities who controls the traffic to a varying degree, from complete public monopoly to competitive tendering. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyse how the organisation of the public bus transport market influences the introduction of renewable fuels. The focus is on understanding what the motivation is for the use of different organisational forms and what challenges and opportunities the authorities in a region encounter during the introduction of renewable fuels. Interviews with authorities in ten Swedish public transport regions show that when functional requirements are used in competitive tendering it will exclusively result in the cheapest renewable fuel available. Thus, if new fuels or technologies should be able to enter the market, either it will be necessary for regional authorities to take more control using specific requirements or publicly management, or the national government must introduce policy instruments that enable new renewable fuels to become competitive on the market.

Extensive published literature shows that hydrated lime improves Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) durability. Its impact on the environmental impact of HMA has not been investigated. This paper presents a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for the use of HMA without hydrated lime (classical HMA) and with hydrated lime (modified HMA) for the lifetime of a highway. System boundaries cover the life cycle from cradle-to-grave, meaning extraction of raw materials to end of life of the road. The main assumptions were: 1. Lifetime of the road 50 years; 2. Classical HMA with a life span of 10 years, maintenance operations every 10 years; 3. Modified HMA with an increase in the life span by 25%, maintenance operations every 12.5 years. For the lifetime of the road, modified HMA has the lowest environmental footprint compared to classical HMA with the following benefits: 43% less primary total energy consumption resulting in 23% lower emissions of greenhouse gases. Partial LCAs focusing only on the construction and/or maintenance phase should be used with caution since they could lead to wrong decisions if the durability and the maintenance scenarios differ. Sustainable construction technologies should not only consider environmental impact as quantified by LCA, but also economic and social impacts as well. Avoiding maintenance steps means less road works, fewer traffic jams and hence less CO2 emissions.

strävan efter en hållbar morgondag är både det offentliga och företagen nyckelspelare. Denoffentliga upphandlingen står för enorma marknadskrafter och en miljömässigt hållbarinriktning kan därför vara en avgörande pusselbit för en blomstrande framtid. Som bådejuridiskt och ekonomiskt styrmedel kan upphandlingen både höja den lägsta ribban och varaföregångare i en samhällsomställning.Att bidra med kunskapsspridande och skapa förståelse för miljömässigt hållbarupphandling är syftet med den här studien. Ett svenskt och operativt fokus med målet attkartlägga målbilden och behoven för den i Dalarna belägna organisationenUpphandlingscenter Falun Borlänge regionen. Vilka behov som finns, hur målbilden ser utsamt hur handlingsplaner kan formuleras för att nå och genomföra en miljömässigt hållbarupphandling var frågeställningar som styrde arbetet.Genom att använda workshoppar med teman kring behoven, målbilden ochhandlingsplaner av miljömässigt hållbar upphandling som datakälla samlades och skapadesbevis och analys för en kategoriserad kartläggning. Sammantaget åtta generiska kategorierhar använts genom hela processen. Samarbete- och samordningsaspekter dominerar ibehoven och målbilden för en miljömässigt hållbar upphandling. En målkonflikt mellanmiljömässiga och ekonomiska perspektiv identifierades som ett första hinder, däremot finnsindikationer på att den målkonflikten är uppfattad istället för reell. Studien indikerar attsamordning av offentliga och decentraliserade verksamheter kan vara det mestproblematiska behovet att tillgodose.Upphandlingscentret Falun Borlänge regionen vandrar inte ensam på vägen till enmiljömässigt hållbar upphandling. Tidigare studier visar på att likartade hinder ochmöjligheter existerar över långa avstånd i rum och tid. Samhällsutvecklingen hinner intemed hållbarhetståget, men kanske har det offentliga en skyldighet att användaupphandlingen för att sätta på sig lotsens hatt. / In the quest of a sustainable tomorrow both the public sector and the business sector are keyplayers. Public procurement holds significant power to sway the market, and green publicprocurement can be a crucial piece of the puzzle for a flourishing future. As a financial andlegal instrument, public procurement can both raise the bar and be a forerunner for a societaltransformation.The aim of this study is to contribute to spreading and creating awareness andunderstanding of green public procurement. Centered around a Swedish and operationalperspective, the goal is to map the vision and needs for a regional organization calledUpphandlingscenter Falun Borlänge regionen. What needs exist, how the vision can bedefined and how action plans can be formulated to implement green public procurementwere questions guiding the paper.Evidence and analysis for a categorized mapping was gathered and created by usingworkshops with themes of needs, vision, and action plans as a data source. Eight genericcategories in total have been used throughout the process. Dominant aspects of needs andvision for green public procurement are cooperation and coordination. A conflict betweenenvironmental and financial goals was identified as a first obstacle, although there wereindications this conflict was perceived, rather than real. The analysis of the study indicatesthat coordination of public and decentralized organizations could be the most problematicneed to fulfill.Upphandlingscentret Falun Borlänge regionen does not walk alone on the road towardsgreen public procurement. Previous studies show that similar obstacles and opportunitiesexist over great distances in time and space. The societal development has a wide gap toclose to reach the desired state of sustainability, but perhaps the public sector has anobligation to use procurement to lead the way. / <p>2022-06-03</p>

Hur ser upphandlare på sitt nya uppdrag att använda sig av hållbarhetskrav i offentliga upphandlingar? Frågan är väldigt komplex trots att lagverket tillåter miljökrav, sociala och etiska krav i upphandlingar. Hela upphandlingsprocessen påverkas också av många aktörers sätt att se på hållbarhetsfrågan och ta ansvar. Förstudier visar att alla organisationer möter olika hinder när de strukturerar om i organisationers uppdrag. I detta arbete är det fokus på Malmö och Upphandlingsenheten där kommunala upphandlare jobbar. Empirisk data är insamlat med en kvalitativ metod genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem anställda. Det visade sig att där finns flera hinder som de måste ta itu med. Först av allt behöver de sammanföra medarbetarnas individuella mål med organisationens mål. Analysen innehåller också goda exempel på när gruppen har kunnat avlägsna hinder. De anställda har också idéer på hur vissa hinder för hållbara upphandlingar skulle kunna avlägsnas. En av möjligheterna som omnämndes var att flera kommuner kan ställa gemensamma krav för att mer kunna påverka leverantörers hållbarhetsutveckling. / What does purchasers think about their new mission to use sustainable demands in public procurements? Even though the law allows environmental and social demands in procurement, the process is very complex. It depends on the co-operation between several different actors within and between organizations. It also depends upon a changed view on the relationship between public procurement and sustainable development. The purchasers must feel responsible for sustainability issues within their expertise. Earlier studies show that all organizations meet different hinders when they change their mission. Focus in this study is on Malmoe and Upphandlingsenheten where the municipality-purchasers work. The empirical data was collected with qualitative methods by semi-structured interviews with five employees. Results show that there are several challenges to implement “green procurement”. First of all the individual goals that the co-workers have must match with the organizational goals. This study shows good examples of how the purchasers have met some of those challenges. The employees also have ideas of how other challenges may be possible to overcome. One possibility could be to co-operate with other municipalities around sustainability to create mutual demands. This could create a greater pressure on suppliers.

Background: This study describes the incentives and barriers of public procurement ofcellulose-based and locally produced textiles in the Swedish healthcaresector governed by the county councils and regions. The size of the publicprocurement market is substantial which makes it imperative to analyse theprocurement decisions taken by this large customer from asustainability perspective. To understand these decisions better the publicprocurement is also analysed from an organisational perspective discussingpressures from global, regional and local stakeholders and governingauthorities.Methods: Empirical and primary data was collected from three semi-structuredinterviews with procurement officers, strategic buyers and heads ofprocurement departments in three county councils and regions in Sweden.The qualitative data was supplemented with quantitative data from a surveytargeting the additional 18 county councils and regions in Sweden. All 21county councils and regions in Sweden participated in or responded to theinterview and survey study. Six (33 %) complete responses were submitted,while five (28 %) surveys were partially responded to. Seven (39 %) countycouncils and regions did not participate in the study. The quantitative surveydata was analysed through the Fisher’s exact test and a thematic analysis wasapplied jointly on the interview and survey data due to the identicalinterview and survey questions.Results: The four themes found in the empirical data were concluded to be thedecision-making in these procurement processes being affected by manystakeholders, a high trust on suppliers for information updates andsustainable responsibility, an existing knowledge gap on cellulose-based andlocally produced textiles and the challenges and opportunities surroundingthe regulation of sustainability in the contract terms in the publicprocurement of textiles. The procurement officials being in a leading or nonleadingposition did not show any statistically significant effect on theperception of the clarity in the relevant political directives and how thisinfluences the possibility to take sustainable action in the procurementprocess, nor on whether the short-term (lowest) price has a higher prioritythan the long-term (e.g. long-term societal and environmental costs) in theprocurement of textiles.Conclusion: The sustainable public procurement of textiles within the Swedish healthcaresector governed by the county councils and regions is characterized by ahigh level of organisational complexity including many global, regional andlocal stakeholders. The governing authorities as well as the procuringorganizations and suppliers show interest in implementing sustainableprocurement processes which is however aggravated by static contract terms,limited knowledge on novel textile materials and the perceived costs relatedto the procurement.

In Paper [I] we use data on Swedish public procurement auctions for internal regularcleaning service contracts to provide novel empirical evidence regarding green publicprocurement (GPP) and its effect on the potential suppliers’ decision to submit a bid andtheir probability of being qualified for supplier selection. We find only a weak effect onsupplier behavior which suggests that GPP does not live up to its political expectations.However, several environmental criteria appear to be associated with increased complexity,as indicated by the reduced probability of a bid being qualified in the postqualificationprocess. As such, GPP appears to have limited or no potential to function as an environmentalpolicy instrument. In Paper [II] the observation is made that empirical evaluations of the effect of policiestransmitted through public procurements on bid sizes are made using linear regressionsor by more involved non-linear structural models. The aspiration is typically to determinea marginal effect. Here, I compare marginal effects generated under both types ofspecifications. I study how a political initiative to make firms less environmentally damagingimplemented through public procurement influences Swedish firms’ behavior. Thecollected evidence brings about a statistically as well as economically significant effect onfirms’ bids and costs. Paper [III] embarks by noting that auction theory suggests that as the number of bidders(competition) increases, the sizes of the participants’ bids decrease. An issue in theempirical literature on auctions is which measurement(s) of competition to use. Utilizinga dataset on public procurements containing measurements on both the actual and potentialnumber of bidders I find that a workhorse model of public procurements is bestfitted to data using only actual bidders as measurement for competition. Acknowledgingthat all measurements of competition may be erroneous, I propose an instrumental variableestimator that (given my data) brings about a competition effect bounded by thosegenerated by specifications using the actual and potential number of bidders, respectively.Also, some asymptotic results are provided for non-linear least squares estimatorsobtained from a dependent variable transformation model. Paper [VI] introduces a novel method to measure bidders’ costs (valuations) in descending(ascending) auctions. Based on two bounded rationality constraints bidders’costs (valuations) are given an imperfect measurements interpretation robust to behavioraldeviations from traditional rationality assumptions. Theory provides no guidanceas to the shape of the cost (valuation) distributions while empirical evidence suggeststhem to be positively skew. Consequently, a flexible distribution is employed in an imperfectmeasurements framework. An illustration of the proposed method on Swedishpublic procurement data is provided along with a comparison to a traditional BayesianNash Equilibrium approach.

1 Abstract With effect from 1 January 2021, municipalities, as contracting authorities, have to comply with environmentally responsible procurement principles, taking into account the nature and purpose of the contract. In this context, we are talking about green public procurement, the requirements of which arise from the European Union directives. This thesis deals with green public procurement by municipalities in the Czech Republic. Since this issue has not yet been explored and widespread in the Czech Republic, the introduction of the new obligation may cause difficulties for municipalities in practice. Therefore, this paper focuses on the attitudes of Czech municipalities towards green public procurement and analyses the specifics of the preparation of green public procurement compared to other public procurement and the resulting new requirements imposed on municipalities. The thesis is intended to serve as a basic insight into the examined issues as well as a potential basis for the practice of municipalities as contracting authorities. The thesis is based on the theoretical background of public interest, sustainable development, good governance and public finance. In terms of methodology, a qualitative type of research was chosen for the purposes of this thesis and a case study was chosen as a type...

政府採購向來金額龐大，以民國 103 年為例，該年度機關辦理逾 10 萬元之採購決標總金額為 1 兆 1367 億餘元，同年度中央政府總預算歲出合計為 1 兆 9162 億餘元，政府採購金額約為總預算歲出的 60%，故就政府採購所制定之法規範具有實務上之重要性。復因政府之採購金額龐大，政府之採購偏好足以影響經濟運作與競爭秩序，因此各國政府經常藉以達成特定政策目標。 　　我國政府採購法第 96 條訂有採購環境保護產品之特別規定，環境保護在國家政策中、甚至國際社會中向來為重要議題，民國 90 年起，行政院核定實施之「機關綠色採購推動方案」、國家永續發展委員會提出之「台灣二十一世紀議程國家永續發展願景與策略綱領」和「永續發展政策綱領」等政策方案，都希望藉由政府採購達成環境保護的目標，我國簽屬之「政府採購協定」（Agreement on Government Procurement）亦於 2012 年修訂環境保護相關條款，然而我國政府採購「環保」之成效卻十分有限，同樣以民國 103 年為例，該年政府採購納入環境考量之比例，約僅為政府採購總金額的 0.5%、總預算歲出的 0.3%。因此，本論文嘗試探討我國政府採購納入環境考量之現行法規，是否符合憲法誡命、或是否存有更佳的立法方式，以回應國內政策的需求、並善盡國際義務。 　　本論文以憲法就環境保護和經濟秩序之規定探討為始，界定立法者具體化相關法令規定之立法形成界限，復以此為前理解，檢視現行規範是否妥適，初步認為政府採購法第 96 條之相關子法，有不當限縮環境保護範圍之嫌，因而手段不足以落實國家對環境的保護義務，可能係實務上納入環境考量比例不足的原因之一；因此以綠色政府採購（Green Public Procurement）成效顯著、且為「政府採購協定」修訂環境保護相關條款之原始提案國──即歐洲聯盟為研究對象，探討其政府採購法制設計，作為我國法制修正之參考。 　　本論文參酌歐洲聯盟採購法制，認為我國應放寬政府採購納入環境考量的範圍、增加可資運用之手段、於採購時計算產品生命週期費用並妥適運用環境標誌與宣告，進而提出初步修法解決之框架建議，以期環境保護能夠確切、妥適地於政府採購中落實。 / Government procurement has been constantly adopted as a policy tool in many countries for its profound effect on a nation’s economic performance and market competition. Legislation concerning government procurement becomes therefore important. According to Article 96 of Taiwan’s Government Procurement Act and other related regulations, procuring entities subjected to those provisions may provide preference to environmentally friendly products. Furthermore, as the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) was revised and come into force in 2014, it suggested that environment protection can be promoted via government procurement. As a consequence, the Executive Yuan formulated several policies to enhance environmentally friendly procurement. Nevertheless, such policies were not as effective as expected. Official statistics show that as government procurement value accounted for 60% of annual expenditures in 2014, the adoption and promotion of environment protection in that value merely accounted for 0.5%. Recognizing the problem, the thesis raises two questions: Is current legislation concerning environment protection in government procurement in accordance with the Constitution? Is there any better way to legislate? To begin with, the thesis first discusses the Constitution’s stipulation of environment protection and economic system to figure out the limit of legislative discretion. Secondly, by reviewing current legislation based on such limit, the thesis finds that neither the definition of “environment protection” nor the methods of priority procurement are appropriate. The thesis hence concludes that such inappropriateness of current legislation may be one of the reasons why those policies did not work out. Last but not least, the thesis has done a comparative study on government procurement legislation of the European Union (EU) to see how legislation in Taiwan may improve. While it is the first party to propose to amend the GPA by adding environment protection into the provisions, EU has also achieved remarkably in “Green Public Procurement” (GPP). In conclusion, the thesis has the following legislative suggestions: First, redefine “environment protection” in the Government Procurement Act and other related regulations. Second, add additional ways in current legislation for procuring entities to better adopt and promote of environment protection in government procurement, including using life-cycle costing and eco-labels.

Cette thèse développe l’analyse d’une politique économique environnementale appliquée dans le cadre d’une économie ouverte et dans celui d’une économie fermée. Elle étudie les effets sur le bien-être et l’environnement des réglementations volontaire et obligatoire tenant compte de l’hétérogénéité des agents économiques et des pays. Elle s’intéresse en particulier aux différents types d’éco-étiquetages en autarcie (Chapitre 1) et après ouverture au commerce international (Chapitre 2); aux programmes d’apport d’information à plusieurs niveaux (Chapitre 3); et aux taxes sur les émissions et marchés publics écologiques (Chapitre 4). L’analyse montre que non seulement le gouvernement mais également les éco-consommateurs peuvent inciter même les producteurs éco-indifférents à se décider pour l’agir respectueux de l’environnement. Les instruments de politique environnementale induisent auto-sélection et polarisation dans les marchés desservis par des entreprises hétérogènes en termes de productivité. Je démontre que des instruments volontaires peuvent avoir des résultats positifs sur le bien-être et l’environnement. En fonction d’hypothèses précises, ils peuvent également être plus efficaces que des approches obligatoires. Le modèle montre également que quand il y a ouverture au commerce international, la politique écologique a un effet supplémentaire sur le bien-être et sur l’environnement, dépendamment du type de politique et des consciences environnementales des différents pays commerciaux. / This thesis develops an applied environmental economic policy analysis in closed and open economy frameworks. It investigates welfare and environmental outcomes of voluntary and mandatory regulation allowing for heterogeneity across economic agents and countries. Particularly, it focuses on voluntary eco-labels of different types in autarky (Chapter 1) and upon opening to international trade (Chapter 2); multi-tier information provision programmes (Chapter 3); and emission taxes and green public procurement (Chapter 4). The analysis shows that not only the government but also eco-concerned consumers can incentivise even eco-indifferent producers to act more environmentally-friendly. Environmental policy instruments induce self-selection and polarisation in the markets served by firms heterogeneous in their productivity. I demonstrate that voluntary instruments can lead to positive welfare and environmental outcomes. Under particular assumptions, they also can be more efficient than mandatory approaches. The model also shows that upon opening to international trade eco-policy yields additional welfare and environmental effects conditionally on the type of the policy and the environmental awareness difference across trading countries.