Sustainable Public Procurement in the Building Construction Sector

Elena Fregonara (), Diego Giuseppe Ferrando and Jean-Marc Tulliani
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Elena Fregonara: Architecture and Design Department, Politecnico di Torino, 10125 Turin, Italy
Diego Giuseppe Ferrando: Architecture and Design Department, Politecnico di Torino, 10125 Turin, Italy
Jean-Marc Tulliani: Applied Science and Technology Department, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, Italy

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 18, 1-23

Abstract: Considering that in the E.U. public procurement in the construction sector is highly represented, the Directive 2014/24/EU is implemented for harmonizing procurement processes across European countries. The Directive is transposed in Italy, through the Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) national action plan, for supporting public procurement and public–private partnership (PPP) interventions. SPP is founded on two pillars: according to an economic viewpoint, the financial efficiency is the key aspect to verify, and, according to a sustainability viewpoint, externalities are a key element in the environmental evaluation, despite the fact that their monetary quantification into the global cost calculation is quite complex. Thus, this work aims to explore a methodology for the joint evaluation of economic–environmental sustainability of project options, in the tender evaluation phase of the SPP. The methodology is based on the life cycle costing (LCC) and CO 2 emissions joint assessment, including criteria weighting and uncertainty components. Two alternative technologies—a timber and an aluminum window frame—are assumed as a case for a simulation, implemented with the software “Smart SPP LCC-CO 2 Tool” (developed through the research “Smart SPP—Innovation through sustainable procurement”, supported by Intelligent Energy Europe). The simulation demonstrates that the methodology is a fast and effective modality for selecting alternative options, introducing sustainability in the decision-making process. The work is a contribution to the growing literature on the topic, and for giving support to subjects (public authorities and private operators) involved in public procurement processes/PPP interventions.

Keywords: economic–environmental sustainability; life cycle costing; life cycle assessment; CO 2 emissions; environmental externalities; green public procurement; sustainable public procurement; public–private partnership (PPP) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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