Katelyn Reinhart from ASU News  interviewed Nicole Darnall and Justin M. Stritch about their involvement with the UN Environment Programme's 2022 Global Review on Sustainable Public Procurement.  The SPRI faculty highlighted how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted sustainable procurement and stakeholder engagement. This report is 200+ pages while the previous one was only 60, highlighting how timely and important sustainable procurement is today.

The ASU team made up of, Nicole Darnall, Justin M. Stritch, Yifan Chen, Angela Fox, and Jake Swanson contributed heavily to the report.

Read the ASU News' article here!

SPRI's Nicole Darnall & Justin Stritch  along with other professors, consultants, and members of the United Nation Environment Porgramme presented key findings and conclusions from the 2022 Sustainable Public Procurement Global Review on January 26, 2023.  The webinar had over 700 registrants representing over 90 different countries.

The team identified 9 primary recommendations including initiatives like making sustainable procurement/guidelines mandatory and enhancing supplier engagement, among others.  If you were unable to attend and interested in learning more, please take a look at the slide deck used during the presentation here.

SPRI is excited to announce our first group of Global Research Affiliates!  Members of the leadership team nominated each of the four affiliates to collaborate with SPRI to support our mission of producing actionable knowledge on sustainable purchasing globally.

This group of scholars:

1. Actively pursue research related to sustainability and purchasing/procurement;
2. Have interests in sharing their research learning with SPRI and its community;
3. Are open to research collaborations with SPRI and its community.

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ASU's SPRI was heavily involved in both the research and writing for the UN Environment Programme's 2022 Global Review on Sustainable Public Procurement.  The team made up of, Nicole Darnall, Justin M. Stritch, Yifan Chen, Angela Fox, and Jake Swanson contributed both to the executive summary and Part I of the report.  This report looks at sustainable procurement globally and can be downloaded and read in full here.

ASU News interviewed SPRI co-founder, Nicole Darnall, about her upcoming appointment with the U.S. General Services Administration's (GSA) inaugural Acquisition Policy Federal Advisory Committee.  Darnall also discusses why sustainable purchasing is so important especially at the federal government level.

Check out the full interview here!

Arizona State University’s Sustainable Purchasing Research Initiative (SPRI) is recruiting a new PhD student to begin in fall 2023. The student will work with Dr. Nicole Darnall and a team of SPRI faculty and students who are focused on assessing sustainable purchasing implementation, impacts, and transitions. The goal of this research is to create actionable knowledge about the conditions that enhance sustainable purchasing effectiveness. The deadline for applications is November 27, 2022.

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As governments worldwide have begun embracing Sustainable Public Purchasing (SPP), researchers note that we lack a broader conceptual framework that articulates the motivations for public organizations to adopt SPP. SPRI faculty, Shirly-Ann Behravesh, Nicole Darnall, and Stuart Bretschneider address this gap by undertaking a significant literature review and content analysis to develop a cogent framework of SPP adoption. The resulting theoretical framework reveals four critical macro-themes associated with SPP adoption: capacity, culture, stakeholders, and institutional setting.

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Nicole Darnall has been selected for the U.S. General Services Administration's inaugural Acquisition Policy Federal Advisory Committee.  Selected from over 100 nominees, Darnall will work with this committee to increase sustainable purchasing within the federal government through regulatory, policy, and process changes "to embed climate and sustainability considerations in Federal acquisition."

Darnall has been interviewed for two different Arizona Republic articles to talk about her upcoming work.  You can read more here and here on AZ Central's website.  Click below to read more on GSA's website.

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As the public sector constitutes the single largest marketplace across the globe, accounting for 24% of U.S. GDP, it imparts significant sustainability consequences, affecting environmental, social, and economic outcomes. The public sector also creates enormous opportunities to leverage its purchasing power to advance sustainable public procurement and sustainability in general. However, at the local level, only one-quarter of U.S. cities have adopted sustainable public procurement, and of these, only about half indicate that their efforts have been successful.

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Sarah Queen joins SPRI as our new Graduate Research Assistant for the 2022-2023 academic year. Sarah is currently working on her Masters in Sustainability Solutions in the School of Sustainability.  She has a background in non-profit marketing, zero-waste, startups, and corporate sustainability efforts and is interested in studying ESG and how corporations can be more sustainable.  Sarah, bringing her past experience, develops social media and blog posts for SPRI as well as contributing to other projects.  Please join us in welcoming her to the team!

Foundation Professor Stuart Bretschneider and co-founder of Arizona State University’s Sustainable Purchasing Research Initiative (SPRI) retired in June 2022. Prof. Bretschneider was instrumental to the creation of SPRI, its community, and the students he advised. His numerous publications and the many students he graduated illustrate his deep commitment to research and student mentorship, and his fundamental desire to improve how public organizations function. We are fortunate, indeed, that Prof. Bretschneider was part of SPRI’s day-to-day activities. We are also grateful that he will continue to engage with SPRI faculty and students on their research, all while taking time for things he enjoys most!

In March 2022, SPRI faculty presented at the Utah Sustainable Purchasing Summit hosted by Utah Resource Stewardship. The State of Utah is seeking to amplify its focus on sustainable purchasing and invited SPRI to discuss different approaches to its ~100 summit attendees.

SPRI faculty also presented to the City of Scottsdale Environmental Advisory Committee in May of this year to provide information about actionable sustainable purchasing practices. The City of Scottsdale is in the process of developing their first-ever sustainability plan and is considering how sustainable purchasing may help it achieve its sustainability goals.

In May 2022, then PhD student Yifan Chen presented a paper at the Public Management Research Conference in Phoenix, AZ entitled "Is technology making local governments greener and more efficient? An empirical analysis of e-procurement systems in the U.S. and Japan.” Chen discussed the growing trend for public agencies to incorporate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into their managerial routines. In the study, Chen explores how digital technologies infuse ‘green’ thinking into government purchasing and affect procurement. Drawing from nationwide surveys of public managers in 459 U.S. cities and 860 Japanese municipalities, this study compares how these relationships vary between the U.S. and Japan.

Government purchasing in South Korea accounts for 25.7% of country-level gross domestic product. Examples of purchases include vehicle fleets, construction materials, chemicals, electronics, and office materials. These purchases collectively contribute to global climate change and a host of other environmental concerns when manufactured and while in use.

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Government purchasing in South Korea accounts for 25.7% of country-level gross domestic product. Examples of purchases include vehicle fleets, construction materials, chemicals, electronics, and office materials. These purchases collectively contribute to global climate change and a host of other environmental concerns when manufactured and while in use.

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In Spain, Government purchasing accounts for 18.5% of total gross domestic product. These purchases of vehicle fleets, construction materials, chemicals, electronics, and office materials contribute to global climate change and other environmental concerns during their lifecycles. As a result, the national government has pledged its commitment to the European Union’s Green Public Procurement criteria and has published a Presidential Order approving the General State Administration’s Green Public Procurement Plan.

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In Spain, Government purchasing accounts for 18.5% of total gross domestic product. These purchases of vehicle fleets, construction materials, chemicals, electronics, and office materials contribute to global climate change and other environmental concerns during their lifecycles. As a result, the national government has pledged its commitment to the European Union’s Green Public Procurement criteria and has published a Presidential Order approving the General State Administration’s Green Public Procurement Plan.

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Arizona State University's Sustainable Purchasing Research Initiative (SPRI) celebrates three student research assistants who successfully defended their dissertations and scientific papers in April and will graduate in May.

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Arizona State University's Sustainable Purchasing Research Initiative (SPRI) welcomes two new undergraduate interns. Anna Elovitz is a junior undergraduate student at the School of Sustainability and the W.P. Carey School of Business, pursuing two bachelor of science degrees in sustainability and economics. Matthew Santino is a senior undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor of science degree in sustainability at the School of Sustainability.

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Originally published in the LSE Business Review

By Yifan Chen, Nicole Darnall, Justin M. Stritch, and Stuart Bretschneider

A product’s price and quality are no longer the primary purchasing criteria for local governments. Environmental and social impact also needs to be considered. So, why aren’t all government using an e-procurement system to simplify the process? Yifan Chen, Nicole Darnall, Justin M. Stritch, and Stuart Bretschneider explored the issue. Their study suggests that governments are more likely to adopt an e-system if they have centralised structures.

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