Researchers suggest five actions they should take to increase their success rate - by Nicole Darnall, Justin Stritch, Stuart Bretschneider, Lily Hsueh, and Won N

Bretschneider, Stuart

Darnell, Nicole

Hsueh, Lily

No, Won

Stritch, Justin

LSE Research Online

7/6/2017 LSE Business Review – US cities’ buy-green schemes reduce their environmental liabilities and costshttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2017/06/29/us-cities-buy-green-schemes-reduce-their-environmental-liabilities-and-costs/ 1/4US cities’ buy-green schemes reduce their environmental liabilitiesand costsResearchers suggest five actions they should take to increase their successrate - by Nicole Darnall, Justin Stritch, Stuart Bretschneider, Lily Hsueh, andWon NoAs the U.S. federal government pulls back from policies and agreements that reduce greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions, local governments are poised to pick up the slack. More than 270 U.S. mayorshave affirmed their continued commitment to reducing GHG emissions following the Trumpadministration’s recent withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord.How can local governments work to further curb GHG emissions? One way is through greenpurchasing.Local governments purchase $1.72 trillion of goods annually. To address environmental concerns andsave money, some local governments have implemented policies to encourage “green” or sustainablepurchasing. These policies include formal directives, but also informal approaches, such as addinggreen purchasing language to a city’s existing sustainability plan.By purchasing green products, local governments can reduce energy-related carbon emissions andsolid waste as well as a host of other negative impacts in the community and workplace. At the sametime, green purchasing can increase internal efficiencies (e.g., reduced energy use) that lead to costsavings.Additionally, successfully implemented green purchasing may have important spillover effects. Whenlarge purchasers, such as cities, demand green products from suppliers, this can affect supply chainsand product availability, as well as the cost of products, and stimulate the global market’s productionof eco-friendly products and services.Many local governments, however, struggle to implement green purchasing.7/6/2017 LSE Business Review – US cities’ buy-green schemes reduce their environmental liabilities and costshttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2017/06/29/us-cities-buy-green-schemes-reduce-their-environmental-liabilities-and-costs/ 2/4To better understand these concerns, our research team conducted a national survey to assess thesuccessful features of local governments’ green purchasing activities. The survey was sent to 1,825directors of finance, public works, and environmental departments in a representative sample of 791U.S. cities with populations greater than 25,000. More than 600 city directors from nearly 460 citiesresponded.Successful Green Purchasing PoliciesCity directors reported that 28 per cent of their cities have a green purchasing policy; 60 per centreported they have no policy and 12 per cent did not know if their city had such a policy. Of the 28 percent of the city directors who reported having a green purchasing policy, over half (58 per cent)indicated that their policy was successful. By contrast, 42 per cent of the adopters said that theimplementation of their green purchasing policy was not successful.Our initial survey findings suggest that success in implementation is conditional on five broad factors:1. Existence of complementary policies and practicesComplementary policies and practices can facilitate green purchasing. These policies vary, rangingfrom energy or water conservation guidelines to sustainable building policies and recycling practices.The presence of these policies and practices creates commitment and shared vision around similarissues, creating opportunities to embed green purchasing into a city’s routine operations. They canalso reduce the cost of adopting a green purchasing policy and facilitate the overall implementationsuccess.2. Access to informationSince product information shapes purchasing decisions, it is not a surprise to learn that directors incities that reported green purchasing success were more likely to have access to relevantenvironmental information. For instance, access to information about the environmental impacts ofproducts increases the probability of reporting a successful implementation to 68 per cent, comparedwith just 45 per cent when the information is not available. The conditional relationship holds for othercategories of information as well, including green product or service lists, tracking of spending onenvironmental products and services, and access to an online database of green products andservices.3. Leadership and clear implementation responsibilityLeadership, employees and resources are often cited as critical elements in the success oforganisational policies. Leadership also appears essential to the implementation success of cities’green purchasing activities. Indeed, when department directors’ “agree” that top managers areresponsible for the implementation of the department’s environmental practices the probability ofreporting a successful implementation of green purchasing is 80 per cent, compared with 67 per centwhen they “disagree.”Directors are also more likely to report green purchasing success when mid-level managers and staffemployees are not responsible for the implementation of green purchasing policies. These findingsunderscore the importance of top-management accountability, as opposed to lower-levelresponsibility in the implementation of green practices and policies.4. Collaborative relationships with vendors7/6/2017 LSE Business Review – US cities’ buy-green schemes reduce their environmental liabilities and costshttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2017/06/29/us-cities-buy-green-schemes-reduce-their-environmental-liabilities-and-costs/ 3/4The roles of vendors are also important to successful green purchasing activities. More specifically,when department directors “agree” that when their department vendors offer environmentally friendlyproducts and services the probability of reporting a successful implementation increases to 80 percent, compared with 33 per cent when directors “disagree” Additionally, when directors reported“agreement” that vendors help their city learn about green purchasing options the probability of greenpurchasing success increases to 83 per cent, compared with 50 per cent when directors “disagree”that vendors help a city learn.These findings point to the potential importance of collaborative relationships with vendors. Cities withgreen purchasing policies tend to regard their vendors more as collaborators when it comes toimplementing their green purchasing policies, as vendors may serve as useful allies who shareinformation and increase capacity for green purchasing in local governments.5. Innovation climateAn organisation’s culture is a function of leaders’ and employees’ values, norms, messages andbehaviours. Strong cultures for innovation encourage organisational change and openness to newideas. Department directors’ “agreement” that rewarding employees for developing innovativesolutions is associated with a 75 per cent probability of green purchasing success, compared with 17per cent when directors “disagree” that their department rewards employees for developinginnovative solutions. Similarly, departmental commitment to innovation and allowing employees totake risks are both positively associated with greater probabilities of green purchasing success.In an increasingly connected world, local governments are positioned to be leaders in globalenvironmental governance. The take-home message from our preliminary findings is that localgovernments can improve the success of their green purchasing activities. The five broad areas weidentify above are the foundation for our recommendations on how local governments can furtheradvance their green purchasing efforts.♣♣♣This blog post is based on the authors’ report Advancing Green Purchasing in LocalGovernments, the Sustainable Purchasing Research Initiative (SPRI) of Arizona StateUniversity’s (Phoenix) Center for Organization Research and Design. The SPRI assesses howpublic organisations, businesses, and nonprofit agencies can address their environmentalconcerns, save money, and demonstrate leadership through green purchasing. Twitter:@SustainPurchThe authors thank the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation for funding this research.The post gives the views of its authors, not the position of LSE Business Review or the LondonSchool of Economics.Featured image credit: Chicago City Hall green roof, by TonyTheTiger, under a CC-BY-SA-3.0licenceBefore commenting, please read our Comment Policy.Nicole Darnall is a professor of management and public policy at Arizona StateUniversity in the School of Public Affairs and the School of Sustainability. She isassociate director of ASU’s Center for Organizational Research and Design (CORD)and team leader of the Sustainable Purchasing Research Initiative. Her researchfocuses on factors that facilitate or impede the enactment of organisationalsustainability and individuals’ sustainability behaviors. ndarnall@asu.edu7/6/2017 LSE Business Review – US cities’ buy-green schemes reduce their environmental liabilities and costshttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2017/06/29/us-cities-buy-green-schemes-reduce-their-environmental-liabilities-and-costs/ 4/4June 29th, 2017 | Environment, Justin M. Stritch, Lily Hsueh, Nicole Darnall, Stuart Bretschneider, WonNo | 0 CommentsJustin M. Stritch is an assistant professor of public management at ASU’s School ofPublic Affairs, CORD Affiliate, and Research Fellow at SFI-The Danish National Centrefor Social Research. His research focuses on employee motivation, management,performance, and decision-making in public organizations. He applies these topics to avariety of settings, including how organizations can encourage workplace participationin pro-environmental behavior. jstritch@asu.eduStuart Bretschneider is Foundation Professor of Organization Designand Public Administration at ASU’s School of Public Affairs and CORD’sDirector of Research. His research focuses on innovation in publicorganisations, the use of information technology and the effects of thosetechnologies on public organisations, and the evaluation ofenvironmental and energy policies. stuart.bretschneider@asu.edu Lily Hsueh is an assistant professor of public policy at ASU’s School of Public Affairs,CORD Affiliate, and Senior Sustainability Scientist at ASU’s Julie Ann Wrigley GlobalInstitute of Sustainability. Her research focuses on the emergence, evolution, andimpacts of alternative governance approaches in the public and private provisions ofpublic goods across policy issue areas, such as climate change, toxic chemicals,ocean and marine resources, and sustainable purchasing. lily.hsueh@asu.eduWon No is a PhD candidate in public administration and policy at ASU. Her researchinterests include civic participation, participatory governance and participatorybudgeting. She assesses the redistributive effects of participatory budgeting, e-participation and ideation processes in online invited spaces, and participatoryprocesses with a focus on the quality of deliberation. wonno@asu.edu  

US cities’ buy-green schemes reduce their environmental liabilities and costs

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