Sustainability of Supply Chains and Sustainable Public Procurement

Sustainable public procurement often draws upon a worldwide market – globalization in the business sector has resulted in dramatic growth in the cross- border movement of commodities and goods. As a result, we now see an increase in the complexity of supply chains, with products imported from a variety of countries where different social and economic regulatory frameworks prevail. In order to become more sustainable, public procurement thus has to deal with an increasing number of environmental, social or ethical issues at all stages of the supply chain.. This pre-study assesses state of the art regarding sustainable supply chain management and how it relates to public procurement by zeroing in on two product groups – timber and textiles.