Sustainable Procurement Practice in Australia

Quality, Risk and Procurement
Management- Sustainable
Procurement practice in
Australia

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................... 2
Literature review............................................................................................................. 2
Sustainable procurement practice...................................................................................... 2
Principles of sustainable procurement................................................................................. 3
Key concepts of sustainable procurement............................................................................ 4
Drivers and focus on sustainability.................................................................................... 5
Rules and regulation related to sustainable procurement practice in Australia................................6
Role of corporate social responsibility in sustainable procurement practice...................................7
Role of sustainable procurement in the public sector..............................................................8
Conclusion................................................................................................................... 10
References................................................................................................................... 11

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Introduction
The paper aims to provide a brief view of the sustainable procurement practices of Australia.
Sustainability generally encompasses the economic, social and environmental factors, whereas
sustainable procurement is the process that makes a positive impact on these factors by
minimizing their adverse impact. Thus sustainable procurement practices are necessary to
develop a positive aspect in the whole atmospheric process. The paper will also discuss the
principle and key concepts of sustainable procurement along with the drivers as well as the focus
of sustainability. As per the Australian government, sustainability plays an essential role in
procurement practices as it provides benefits to both organization and society by influencing
them to reach their goals and reduce their risks too. Considering this fact in Australia, some rules
and regulations are followed in terms of sustainable procurement practice, and this will be briefly
discussed in this context. Moreover, the role of corporate social responsibility and the role of
sustainable procurement in the public sector will also be demonstrated in this paper.
Literature review
Sustainable procurement practice
In the words of Bellantuono, Carbonara and Pontrandolfo, (2017), sustainable procurement
practice is to consider as the guideline of sustainability that helps in deciding by encompassing
social, environmental and economic elements of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL). It is
demonstrated as the sustainable development indicators that influence relatively more-advanced
atmospheric practices so that it creates a positive impact on the socio-economic factors of the
society. For the sustainable procurement practices, Triple Bottom Line (TBL) is considered as
the paradigm which helps the organization as well as society to meet their needs of present and
the future goals by considering all the three factors. In Australia, not only TBL but the
sometimes quadruple bottom line (QBL) is also followed in terms of maintaining a sustainable
procurement practice in the organization (Ghadge et al., 2019). In this QBL, government and
leadership is the additional factor that also helps in making a positive impact on society.
According to Meehan and Bryde, (2011), sustainable procurement practice provides an
opportunity to add more value in the business by improving their performance, productivity,
accessing value, enabling communication between stakeholders and suppliers, purchasers and it

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also encourage innovation of the products and services of the firm. Hence overall, it provides a
positive impact on the organization by increasing their status and value in the market where it
operates the business. As stated by Barclay and Miller (2018), procurement management plays
an important role in maintaining sustainable procurement practices in the organization.
Procurement management makes the contract in such a manner that it must be beneficial for both
the parties. The procurement management role is to ensure that both the parties receive good
results in return as well as after the completion of the project. Thus with the help of this
procurement management, the firm maintains its sustainable procurement practice approach with
that of their contractors of the projects and several stakeholders.
In the opinion of Popova, Tomashevska and Popova, (2017), the key role of sustainable
procurement practices is to look outside the boundaries of the firm so that they can also improve
their green supply chain management practices. Hence this practice not only enhances the
sustainable development in the organization but also influence the management to think outside
the box that can overall makes their business stable in the current operating market. However,
many researchers demonstrated that maintaining a sustainable procurement practice in the
organization is a complicated process as it still needs infancy and along with further research has
to be done on this aspect of sustainability that helps in building positive procurement practice in
the business.
The main difficulties occur when the activities of the management go beyond the boundaries of
the organization, and at that time, they cannot fulfil their business needs. As proposed by Naoum
and Egbu, (2015), changing external environmental factor is also a reason that reduces the inertia
of sustainable procurement practices in the organization. Thus for maintaining a stable
environmental aspect, it is important for every organization to make an endorse sustainability
environmental schemes by which they easily manage the changing environmental condition
without affecting their sustainable procurement practices. In addition, by maintaining the inter-
organizational relationships, the firms can improve their sustainability as well as maintain
sustainable procurement practice in their business.
Principles of sustainable procurement
According to the NSW Procurement Policy Framework (2015), the principle of sustainability
procurement are provided below: