Title

Promoting sustainable public procurement through economic policy tools: From moral suasion to nudging

Authors

• Désirée U. Klingler – [email protected]
  Désirée Klingler, LL.M. (Yale) is a research fellow at Yale Law School, and Ph.D. Candidate at the University of St. Gallen, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Since 2020, Désirée Klingler is lecturer at the Law and Economics Institute of the University of Hamburg, Germany and was research scholar at the Copenhagen Business School. She applies the interdisciplinary law and economics method to public procurement and competition law, with a focus on data analytics of efficient and sustainable procurement. As a Swiss lawyer, trained and admitted to the New York Bar, Désirée Klingler applies comparative legal analysis to pertinent legal issues, like sustainable procurement, applying U.S., EU, and Swiss law, as well as international law. Désirée Klingler is editor of the European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review (EPPPL) of the section “International & Interdisciplinary” and senior expert in sustainable public private partnerships at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).
• Steven L. Schooner – [email protected]
  Steven L. Schooner is the Nash & Cibinic Professor of Government Procurement Law at the George Washington University Law School in Washington DC. He previously served in the U.S. Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), at the Department of Justice, as a Commissioner at the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, (as an Army Reserve officer) as an Adjunct Professor at the Judge Advocate General’s School of the Army, and as an attorney in private practice. He received his BA from Rice University, JD from the College of William and Mary, and LLM from George Washington University.  He is a Fellow of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA) and a Certified Professional Contracts Manager (CPCM). Much of his recent research is available on SSRN at https://ssrn.com/author=283370.
  

Abstract

As the climate crisis accelerates and governments aspire to achieve more circular economies, this article encourages experimentation with innovative, interdisciplinary, and sustainable approaches that exploit governments’ enormous spending power. Rather than waiting for legislative or regulatory changes, the article advocates driving sustainable public procurement (SPP) through efficient and available behavioral-economics-inspired “green defaults,” nudging, persuading procurement officials, and, more broadly, rethinking the value proposition when confronted with price premiums.

Keywords

Comply or explain, Government contracts, Green defaults, Greenwashing, Life cycle cost analysis, Nudging, Sustainable procurement.

Cite this article

Klingler, D. & Schooner,  S. (2022). Promoting Sustainable Public Procurement Through Economic Policy Tools: From Moral Suasion to Nudging. European Journal of Public Procurement Markets, 4(4), 68-80. https://www.doi.org/10.54611/PWMK5313.