Sustainable procurement practice
Abstract
Procurement has a key role in sustainability as policies and practices need to extend beyond organisations' boundaries incorporating their whole supply chains. Guidelines on sustainability encourage procurement to make decisions that encompass the environmental, economic and social elements of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL). Taking a supply chain perspective, procurement also need to analyse how decisions impact on the TBL in respect of suppliers. The results of a survey of sustainable procurement practices in 44 English‐based UK Housing Associations (HAs), who are responsible for the provision of social housing, confirms prior research of other sectors that suggests 1) a failure to overcome inertia in relation to sustainable procurement; and 2) in the few examples where practices have been established, only the environmental element of the TBL is considered. The organisations surveyed have sustainability‐related issues in their missions and external and internal pressures to embed sustainability, yet this has not translated into widespread establishment of sustainable procurement. Recommendations to neutralise inertia are: firstly, take the experiences from other areas, e.g. innovation management, which stress the importance of inter‐organisational relationships; secondly, develop a small number of sustainable development indicators for procurement and, to take advantage of the relatively more‐advanced environmental practices to show how these elements have socio‐economic impa…
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Strategies for effectively engaging with suppliers are becoming more important, moving away from compliance-related approaches.
“and strategies for effectively engaging with suppliers are becoming more important, moving away from compliance-related approaches (Meehan and Bryde, 2011).”
From Implementation and management of a circular public procurement contract for furniture (2023) · cites this paper as Meehan and Bryde, 2011
Sustainability policy and guidelines form at different levels (internationally, nationally, and locally) and contribute to a complexity that can cause confusion at the operational level and, therefore, inertia in procurement decision-making.
“Sustainability policy and guidelines form at different levels (internationally, nationally, and locally) and contribute to a complexity that can cause confusion at the operational level and, therefore, inertia in procurement decision-making (Meehan and Bryde, 2011).”
From Implementation and management of a circular public procurement contract for furniture (2023) · cites this paper as Meehan and Bryde, 2011
Bringing sustainability into the procurement process redefines the options and adds a dimension other than price, quality and time.
“Furthermore, top management needs to be committed to sustainability (Brammer and Walker, 2011;Vejaratnam et al., 2020), and bringing it into the procurement process redefines the options and adds a dimension other than price, quality and time (Meehan and Bryde, 2011).”
From Implementation and management of a circular public procurement contract for furniture (2023) · cites this paper as Meehan and Bryde, 2011
Decentralization is known to add to the complexity of procurement processes in organizations where confusion exists due to the mix of policy and guidelines at different levels.
“Decentralization is known to add to the complexity of procurement processes (Polonsky et al., 2022) in organizations where confusion exists due to the mix of policy and guidelines at different levels (Meehan and Bryde, 2011).”
From Implementation and management of a circular public procurement contract for furniture (2023) · cites this paper as Meehan and Bryde, 2011
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“, 2021) and strategies for effectively engaging with suppliers are becoming more important, moving away from compliance-related approaches (Meehan and Bryde, 2011).”
BackgroundInfluentialAkin-Oluyomi, O. T., Okoruwa, P. O., Babatope, O. M., & Akokodaripon, D. A. (2025) · International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Growth Evaluation · doi:10.54660/.ijmrge.2025.6.5.964-974 · Cited by 6
“It’s Just a Wild, Wild West”: Harnessing Public Procurement as an AI Governance Mechanism
Hudig, A. I., Kallina, E., & Singh, J. (2026) · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3772318.3791968 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“What can we learn from non-AI procurement practices on how to shape the behaviour in the private sector such as procurement practices driving sustainable behaviour in the private sector [120, 138]?”
Procurement 4.0: A Systematic Review of Its Technological Evolution
Bueno, R. E., Almeida dos Santos, H., de Junior Freitas, M., Toloi, R. C., & Gonçalves, R. F. (2022) · IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-16411-8_19 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
- Authors
- Meehan, J., & Bryde, D.
- Affiliations
- Liverpool John Moores University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Meehan, Joanne
- Venue
- Business Strategy and the Environment
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2011-01-30
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 94-106
- ISSN
- 0964-4733 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-0836
- OpenAlex
- W2091662290
- Cited by
- 304
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 29 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 18.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Business Strategy and the Environment (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Sustainable Supply Chain Management
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Public Procurement and Policy
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Environmental Sustainability in Business
- Keywords
- sustainable procurement, housing associations, social housing, triple bottom line, supply chain sustainability, supplier selection, interorganizational relationships, sustainability indicators, environmental sustainability
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