How I got hooked on to Sustainable Procurement?

In recent times, I have been getting several queries on green/sustainable procurement from several quarters. While I have tried to answers few, I agree, it might not have been possible to answers to their satisfaction. Some of the common questions which they asked were - What course have you done, Where to find out materials on green procurement, What work have you done in this filed, Have you published, I also want to work on and so on. It was really difficult for me as well to answer these questions in piecemeal because I don’t have a short and sweet answer to these questions!

I don’t either know their motivation for such queries – whether to travel abroad or genuine interest in topic or just a fad! But nevertheless, I am glad to get these enquiries because I think whatever their motivation is, at least they are attempting to know and learn this concept. I owe it to them to address their concerns and this is the very purpose of this blog. The very idea of this blog is to spread the concept of sustainable procurement among stakeholders. Few days back, some IRSS probationers came to me and I was in for big surprise. They told me that they are doing project on Green Procurement! This is good omen for sustainability movement as more and more people are getting interested in subject and I am sure one day they will be the torch bearer and would spread the message of integrating sustainability in public decision making.

Today, I trace my journey on this path and I would try to address some of the questions. I know one sitting would not be enough. But I think it needs to be shared. Well, I was doing Public Policy and Sustainable Development course with TERI sponsored by DoPT in 2006. Same as above probationers, I was looking out for topic for my major thesis in those days. I searched entire thesis done in last two -three years in public policy areas at University of Texas, Austin to get an idea. However, I didn't find them interesting.  One day, I googled “green procurement” without knowing that there is something that exist on this earth! But guess, I got several entries within few seconds! I read about it and found very interesting, as this was completely new subject almost unheard in India, was related to my experience in handling procurement and my academic knowledge of environment engineering / sustainable development during my master courses. Meanwhile, our group moved to Yale University, New Heaven. At Yale, I discussed suitability of this topic as a thesis for master with Prof. Marian Chertow. She was very impressed with my proposed work and encouraged me to go ahead. This had a kind of reassuring effect on me and I decided to go ahead with this topic for my major thesis.

Coming back to TERI, looking for guide was a big challenge as no one in academia in India had done work on this subject. This is mostly true till today! But thanks to TERI, it encouraged me to look beyond TERI’s boundary. I read more and more on this topic and finally got in touch with Prof Dr. Edeltraud Guenther of Technical University Dresden, Germany. She had done pioneering works on this topic in Europe. I sought her help in doing my thesis and she readily agreed to support. In fact, she willingly allowed using resources of her university to carry out work. It was with their support that I had undertaken online survey to find out hurdles for implementing green public procurement in Indian Railways. I am sure many of you must have participated in that online survey.

Since then, I have been remained glued to this topic and used every single opportunity to strengthen my knowledge in this area. I have witnessed growth of this topic from scratch in India to its present level. It was heartening to find mention of green procurement in New Year message of Procurement Head of Indian Railways. This is indeed a milestone in progress of SPP in India. I hope this would be taken to its logical conclusion. My network in this field has naturally grown during these years and am happy being connected with them. This is very rewarding in the sense it gives you opportunity to enhance your knowledge at no cost.

In the end, I just want to tell, it has been a long, enjoyable journey and I would like to remain focused in this field. In current scenario, when the whole world is talking about sustainability, you just can’t ignore this topic. I am confident that if not today you would also be talking about it tomorrow! So better jump on sustainability bandwagon!! It is never too late!!!