Green procurement is the buzz word which involves the integration of environmental

considerations into the procurement process and considers prioritising on green energy by
choosing renewable energy.
This paper extensively explores the relationship between interlinking of impact assessment and
procurement for construction projects. It majorly specifies and concludes on relationship (arrived
through various interviews) that along with other documents and plans important for developmental
activity, impact assessment statement contributes to the approval and disapproval for the
procurement of construction projects. Thus there is a vast opportunity of extending the influence of
impact assessment on procurement, there should always be thrust on green procurement which
helps in reducing the number of carbon-foot prints thereby decreasing the emission of greenhouse
gases in value chain.
It deliberates on green procurement by adopting the following strategy to gauge how the various
categories of stakeholders in Swedish construction sector view the link between impact assessment
and green procurement.
This study is based on literature review and interviews.
The review addressed previous research on impact assessment and green procurement,
procurement contracts, help in identification of priority areas encouraging the procurement
of renewable energy in construction sector.
This is followed by interviews which focuses on interlink between impact assessment and
green procurement, and the priority areas for encouraging the procurement of renewable
energy.
Purposive sampling was applied to identify categories of stakeholders for interviews for
selecting information-rich persons. Thus, the sampling process mapped three fundamental
categories of stakeholders, and these involved the client, contractor and energy supplier.
The participants from the construction companies involved employees who were primarily
responsible for environmental concerns in their company.
Results and Analysis
The environmentally friendly solutions recommended during planning phase need to be
effectively communicated at the project implementation phase & there should be effective
coordination between impact assessment and structure of environmental tasks through
green procurement.
The subject matter of the contract sets out the scope of the procurement and green
procurement could facilitate in adhering to subject matter of contract while setting out the
objectives of social, environmental and societal concerns referred to as horizontal criterion.
The municipality respondents opinion was that the action programme had contributed
more to environmental requirements than the impact assessment. However respondent also
mentioned that impact assessment and the action programme are linked, and that the
action programme facilitates in setting environmental requirements for the developer.
Both respondents from municipality and Construction Company pointed out that the
construction companies has to play a major role in green procurement
The literature review of certain contract documents stipulate the environmental assessment
however the extent to which it is done is absent, therefore it hardly serves any purpose.
An interviewee stated in the projects proposed by the municipalities, there is gap between
Impact Assessment and Green Procurement because the impact assessments are conducted
by the municipalities, whereas, the planning for green procurement is undertaken by
construction companies. However, there is an opportunity wherein EIA can inuence the
green procurement process where in environmental assessment is explicitly mentioned in
contract documents.
Interviewee referred to the use of Building Research Establishments Environmental
Assessment Method (BREEAM). It is an environmental assessment tool for buildings to
benchmark the performance against set criterion. The BREEAM rating certicate is used to
promote the environmental credentials of the company. It enables planning authorities to
conrm whether developers seeking planning permission have met the national, regional
and local sustainability targets.
Interviewee do stress on the point that their company pays extra for procuring green
material however they do lack professional experience in procuring the material on the basis
of impact
Studies
According to another interviewee, it is rather important to focus on life cycle assessment
(LCA) of the energy production process to procure energy. LCA is a tool used to assess the
environmental impacts and resources used throughout a products life from raw-material
acquisition through production use and disposal
One interviewee stated impact assessment is not the only factor that will contribute to
renewable energy procurement. There are other factors such as the awareness among the
customers which will be the basic driving force for development in the area of green
procurement.
Interviewee stressed on the point it is important to have partnerships for procurement of
green energy especially in those areas where contractor is not an expert in measures
applicable to project.
One interviewee indicated that planning for procurement at an early stage is important in
order to be creative and develop measures that do not exist within the purview of given
standards and also suggested the importance of local energy plans in procurement
In order to promote renewable energy products there should be focus on involvement of
stakeholders at early stages so as to develop coordination and cooperation to test and
modify new technology to give better products. The planning and partnerships must evolve
at the planning stages.
Interviewee focused on tradable green certicates system diffusing renewable energy
technologies
According to Beck and E Martinot policies that intend to promote renewable energy can be
grouped into four categories- (a) price setting and quantity-forcing policies that mandate
prices and require a xed amount of generation to be renewable (b) cost reduction policies
that reduce investment costs through subsidies, loans and other such measures (c) public
investment and market facilitation activities that provides public funds for direct
investments or for guarantees, information, training to facilitate investments (d) power grid
access policies that gives renewable energy equal treatment for access to power grids.
Furthermore, Markard and Truffer (2006) acknowledged that a combination of policies is
needed in order to achieve high diffusion rates of renewable energy sources.
Interviewees agreed that there should be policy integration to procure renewable energy
and also focuses on building trust in order to create an innovation arena where knowledge
and ideas are shared in a fair and open environment. However some other interviewees
prioritised various processes such as early planning, partnering and technology development
over policy integration, and indicated that the lessons learnt from such process would help
in shaping policies. This interviewee also identied that in so doing, there will be a need to
educate concerned stakeholders on policies, decide on the actions to be taken according to
combined policies and nally show them the way to work accordingly.
Conclusion
Overall, no signicant differences exist between the interviewees perceptions concerning
priority areas such as partnerships, planning at early stages, renewable energy technology,
and policy integration. However, in terms of partnerships, some interviewees focused on the
active involvement of end users.
Partnership and planning at early stages for procurement of green energy have been
regarded as the top priorities.
The perspectives of the interviewees indicate certain directions for future investigation
regarding the inter-link. Research is required to examine how the inter-link between impact
assessment and green procurement could be facilitated by tools such as BREEAM for
Communities.
Critics of Paper
The paper should have involved the data which could tell about the no of people
interviewed and their responses recorded in order to arrive at the point that results
indicated are non-biased and research is done on more scientific basis
The paper could have talked about the optimum combination of various policies that could
increase the penetration of renewable energy products in market.
Though it talked from the various perspectives of stakeholders but the views of higher
management in construction business could have been more credible.
There could have been much more focused conclusion by indicating the number of
stakeholders who have voted or spoken in favour of integration of impact statement with
green energy
The writer could have been more scientific and could have presented his own views
regarding the integration between two
The research could also have been flown the extent and the depth upto which
environmental assessment should be done to arrive at the clear procurement of green
energy
The paper could have explored the various options in detail to increase the penetration of
renewable energy products in market.
How interlinking between impact assessment and green procurement could be facilitated by
using tools such as BREEAM should have been extensively studied and be brought out.