Sustainable purchasing is in the spotlight due to the significant environmental impact of government purchasing. Governments are recognizing the potential of a sustainable purchasing policy to deliver public services while promoting sustainability. The Biden administration is actively promoting sustainable purchasing through executive orders and proposed rules. At the local and global levels, governments and international organizations are implementing regulations and initiatives to create sustainable purchasing guides. These efforts have the potential to shape global supply chains, incentivizing companies to prioritize sustainable products and services.

Did you know that government purchasing accounts for about 1 in every 4 dollars in the U.S. economy and nearly 1 in 5 globally? These purchases have an estimated environmental impact nine times greater than the impacts associated with managing public sector buildings and fleets. 

Let me say this again: Government purchases have an estimated environmental impact nine times greater than the impacts associated with managing public sector buildings and fleets.

These impacts are creating significant interest in sustainable public purchasing. Sustainable public purchasing introduces environmental and social criteria into purchasing decisions. By leveraging their enormous purchasing power, governments that adopt sustainable purchasing policies, can deliver public services while providing significant sustainability benefits.

And, luckily, this is something governments increasingly recognize. The Biden administration is aggressively promoting sustainable purchasing in numerous Executive Orders, including EO14030, which “requires agencies to consider a supplier’s greenhouse gas emissions when making purchasing decisions and to give preference to bids from companies with lower greenhouse gas emissions.” The Biden administration also proposed a rule requiring all Federal contractors to disclose their climate emissions so that this information can be used to inform government contracting and purchasing decisions.

At the local level, more than 1,000 U.S. local governments have pledged their commitment to meet the Paris Climate goals and about half of them are using sustainable purchasing to fulfill their climate commitments.

At a global level, international organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, USAID, and OECD are actively promoting sustainable purchasing, through numerous initiatives, while national governments worldwide are regulating government purchases for their sustainability impacts. For instance, The European Union mandates that member governments embed sustainability into their purchasing decisions;

The U.K.’s new regulations that require firms to eliminate modern slavery in purchasing

Globally, countries are requiring firms to disclose their Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions risks.

All of these factors have the promise to shape supply chains globally, incentivizing companies to reduce their emissions and radically expand their global focus on producing sustainable products and services.