Why talk about sustainability now?

Developmental Context

Over recent years, India has witnessed unprecedented levels of economic growth and is behind only to China in terms of growth in GDP. This rapid economic growth has produced a significant rise in real wages and has increased the levels of disposable income in the hands of consumers resulting in higher consumption. However, much of this increased economic growth and increased consumption have been based on environmentally unsustainable high carbon growth patterns, the effects of which are now in front of everybody eyes in terms of environmental degradation and climate change. The effect on the environment is going to get compounded due to continuing population growth and rapid urbanization throughout the India. While the skeptics continue to debate effect of climate change on our surrounding, ordinary human have witnessed clear and conclusive evidences of climate change such as increase in frequency and severity of cyclones, changes in the seasons and severity of rainfall pattern, the rise in temperature over the years etc. The strange thing is about this phenomena is that it is not limited either to developed or poor nation and its effects can be felt anywhere in the world. Can we ignore these signals?

What kind of growth do we want?

If the conventional economic growth pattern is continued in business as usual, it is believed that these levels of economic growth cannot be sustained without compromising environmental sustainability unless that growth is channeled by active public policies to tame unbridled increase in resource utilization by consumers. The new strategy focuses on consumers, who by preferring a choice of products and services minimize negative environmental, social and economic impacts of their consumption. Since publication of the Brundtland Commission report in 1987, sustainable consumption has been considered as a major component of sustainable development strategy. Any debate on sustainable development in India is seen with suspicion and an attempt by developed nations to throttle the developmental aspiration of people and industries in India without realizing the fact that sustainable consumption is not in direct conflict with   poverty alleviation, economic growth, health, education and environmental protection. It is only about meeting the needs of consumers while being environmentally conscious and at the same time without compromising the need of future generations. It is now widely believed that, for developing countries like India, adopting sustainable consumption for transition to a low-emission economy is an opportunity to spur innovation, create jobs, protect environment and safeguard biodiversity.

What is Sustainable  Procurement (SPP)?

Considering India uniqueness and need to balance growth and sustainability, India need not follow the growth trajectory of the West in her effort to fulfill people’s aspiration and can chart her own course based on the experiences of the developed nations. One such Government-led environmental policy, instrumental in promoting sustainable consumption that seems promising is known commonly as “Green Public Procurement” (GPP). This aims at integrating environmental consideration in to the purchasing process and provides unique opportunity to leapfrog directly on a more sustainable growth path. GPP is an approach by which public authority integrate environmental criteria in to all stages of their procurement process by seeking and choosing outcome and solution that have the least possible impact on the environment throughout their whole life cycle. Please note that all the underlined words are very important for understanding the concept. 

Green Public Procurement is affirmative selection and acquisition of products by the public authority that integrate environmental criteria in its product specification in order to effectively minimize negative environmental impacts of products over their life cycle of manufacturing, transportation, use and recycling or disposal. i.e. in addition to conventional considerations such as price and quality, environmental conservation must be considered when making purchasing decisions. This will make the reduction of the environmental impact of goods and services an element for a successful procurement contract – the resulting competition between enterprises shall lead to the popularization of environment friendly goods.

Green Public Procurement (GPP) has been variously called as Sustainable PublicProcurement (SPP), Green Government Procurement (GGP), Green Purchasing (GP) etc. but the idea remains the same. However, in Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP), besides economic and environmental aspects of product, social aspects of the products are also taken into account while making procurement decision.   Therefore a natural path to follow for an organization is to move from Public Procurement (PP) to Green Public Procurement (GPP) and in due course to Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP). In Indian context, decision of Government to procure only three stars or above BEE rated electric appliances for use is an example of Green Public Procurement and decision of certain departments to procure cloths from KVIC and ACASH is an example of Sustainable Public Procurement because we are looking at social consideration also.