Greening non-product-related procurement – when policy meets reality

Green procurement in Denmark is developing with a new strategy with special emphasis on non-product-related procurement; i.e., all products that are not directly transformed into the product produced by the company, for example cleaning detergents and office supplies. Three earlier strategies are well described in literature: Green supply chain management in the business-to-business area, green public procurement, and, finally green private consumption. The latest strategy with special emphasis on non-product-related procurement makes sense from a macro-level perspective: the small environmental benefits of millions of procurement decisions do add up to large environmental improvement potentials. Thus, non-product-related procurement focuses on the similarities in the purchases made across different sectors. Explorative interviews with purchasers in Danish companies form the basis for an investigation of the drivers of and barriers to the greening of non-product-related procurement. The research shows that, as a main challenge, the clear benefits achieved at the macro-level are almost invisible at the micro-level, where the management priorities tend to focus on the primary, customer-related procurement. Taking a network approach focussing on resources, actors and activities, three ways of utilising the drivers of non-product-related procurement are suggested: 1) Increase the focus on the extremely concentrated procurement markets such as the on-line catalogues of wholesalers; 2) Create a closer link to the strategy for greening private consumption, as similarities exist and the purchasers lean on their private experiences when purchasing non-product-related items; and finally, 3) Intensify the efforts in product categories in which strict normative legislation makes management more motivated.