The organizational impacts of green public procurement: evidence from a large European University

Green Public Procurement (GPP) policies are becoming increasingly important as public organizations worldwide aim to improve sustainability and promote environmentally friendly practices. These policies require public organizations to implement green criteria in supplier selection to steer supply chains towards greener trajectories. Research has so far focused on the level of GPP uptake and barriers hindering it. There is, however, a dearth of studies analyzing GPP impacts on stakeholders other than procurers and going beyond the mere procurer-supplier dyadic relationship. Accordingly, adopting a triadic perspective, this study gauges a spillover effect that has not received much attention, namely, the organizational changes brought upon involved stakeholders, focusing on the triad procurers, suppliers, and internal clients within public organizations. Through the multiple-case study methodology, and triangulating data collected from semi-structured interviews with technical documentation of GPP tenders issued by a large European university, several novel dynamics are revealed. In particular, the procurer's green leadership plays a crucial role in less regulated industries by promoting a green bullwhip effect upstream; additionally, there is a need for greater communication to nurture a green culture and enable a ripple effect downstream; lastly, a direct feedback and interaction between suppliers and end clients could facilitate the structuring of suppliers’ offer and further improve clients’ satisfaction levels.