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Investigating the Barriers to Sustainable Procurement in the United Nations

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Humanitarian Logistics and Sustainability

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Logistics ((LNLO))

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to investigate the barriers that constitute obstacles to implementing effective sustainable procurement practices in the United Nations system. The research approach of the paper is inspired by Grounded Theory. We targeted the largest procuring UN entities as well as sustainability leaders in the UN system and approached a procurement practitioner and procurement policymaker at each for 30–45 min semi-structured telephone interviews. Twenty interviews were carried out. Drawing on the resulting qualitative data, we develop a framework of barriers in eight different categories each containing a number of individual barriers. By tallying the number of interview subjects that mention each barrier, a preliminary ranking of the barriers’ relative importance can be attained. The discussion of the barrier framework leads us to propose a sequential model of sustainable procurement implementation in public sector organizations. The paper should be useful for public sector procurement officials who are in the process of introducing sustainability measures. For the UN organizations that are working on this, the paper offers empirically demonstrated focus areas where it can help sequence the measures and prioritize resource investments. The research addresses a gap in the sustainable procurement and supply chain management literature: that of the understudied public sector, broadly, and the United Nations, specifically. The analysis also employs a novel split between the procurement policymaker and practitioner levels, which suggests an innovative approach to addressing the identification of barriers in sustainable procurement.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UNOPS, Marmorvej 51, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Jacob Hasselbalch, Nives Costa & Alexander Blecken

Authors
  1. Jacob Hasselbalch
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  2. Nives Costa
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  3. Alexander Blecken
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nives Costa .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Logistics and Service Management, FOM University of Applied Sciences Essen, Essen, Germany

    Matthias Klumpp

  2. Nottingham Business School, AmsterdamVU, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Amsterdam, The Netherlands & Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom

    Sander de Leeuw

  3. Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Alberto Regattieri

  4. The Logistics Institute Asia Pacific, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Robert de Souza

Appendix

Appendix

Interview Manual

Disclaimer: anonymous, confidential, personal views instead of official, organizations will not be emphasized, not recorded, general notes will be taken, length of interview will approximately be 30–35 min.

  • Setup: 3-part interview (definition, operation, and impact)

  • Part 1: Definition

    1. 1.

      Definition

      1. (a)

        What is your definition of sustainable procurement (SP)?

      2. (b)

        According to your definition given here, does your organization practice SP?

      3. (c)

        How would you describe the balance between economic, social, and environmental concerns? Can you give an example of how this would look in practice?

    2. 2.

      Mandate

      1. (a)

        Do you think there is a clear mandate for your organization to engage in SP, and where does it come from?

      2. (b)

        Does your organization have a clear SP policy or strategy? Is it regularly updated and communicated to staff and stakeholders?

      3. (c)

        Do you think that SP has the potential to either further or hinder your organization’s efforts to meet its mandate?

      4. (d)

        Do you feel supported in your sustainability efforts by a high-level commitment to the issue?

  • Part 2: Operation

    1. 3.

      Training

      1. (a)

        Have you delivered or received training in SP?

      2. (b)

        Is there a designated individual in your organization that is accountable for SP?

    2. 4.

      Economics

      1. (a)

        Do you believe that you would experience short-term cost increases as a result of doing SP?

      2. (b)

        If yes, do you think that these would be outweighed by long-term savings or other benefits, either tangible or intangible (such as better morale, cleaner environment, supporting your mandate, etc.)?

      3. (c)

        Do you think your organization’s procurement rules and regulations allow you to balance the differences between short-term/long-term financial considerations?

  • Part 3: Impact

    1. 5.

      Risks

      1. (a)

        What are the main risks of engaging in SP?

      2. (b)

        Conversely, what are the main risks of not engaging in SP?

    2. 6.

      Impact and rewards

      1. (a)

        What are the most important pros and cons of SP?

      2. (b)

        How are SP practices impacting your organization as a whole? Positively or negatively?

    3. 7.

      Examples

      1. (a)

        Can you provide me with one clear example of where SP worked in favour of organizational and stakeholder goals and needs?

      2. (b)

        Can you provide me with one clear example of where SP efforts were detrimental to the procurement process?

  • END

  • Are there any final comments you would like to make, or any issues or concerns you would like to raise?

  • Can I mention (specific case studies or examples brought forward during the interview) in my article?

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Hasselbalch, J., Costa, N., Blecken, A. (2015). Investigating the Barriers to Sustainable Procurement in the United Nations. In: Klumpp, M., de Leeuw, S., Regattieri, A., de Souza, R. (eds) Humanitarian Logistics and Sustainability. Lecture Notes in Logistics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15455-8_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15455-8_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15454-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15455-8

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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