Introducing environmental decision-making criteria to foster Green Public Procurement in Peru

Understanding green procurement dynamics: An assessment framework for public sector organizations

Governments globally face increasing pressure from climate advocates and international agreements, such as the Paris Agreement, to enact policies addressing climate change. This paper addresses the imperative for sustainable practices outlined in such agreements, with a specific focus on assessing the drivers of Green Procurement Practices (GPP) within Public Sector Organizations (PSOs). A dearth of research exists in systematically analyzing and prioritizing these drivers, exploring their interdependencies, and elucidating their relative importance. GPP is pivotal in market transformation by promoting environmentally friendly products and endorsing low-carbon, energy-efficient alternatives. This, in turn, contributes significantly to mitigating climate change and fostering a shift towards a greener, more sustainable economy. Identification of the drivers has been performed by an extensive review of the literature combined with the author's viewpoint, while the analysis has been performed using the novel method of Dominance-based Rough Set Approach (DRSA) and Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) with Matriced' Impacts Croise's Multiplication Applique'e a UN Classement (MICMAC) analysis. The study's outcome reveals that the Demand for Eco-friendly products is the primary driver for the incorporation of GPP, followed by the drivers' Presence of guidelines support and Government Regulations. Findings of the research also demonstrate that suppliers' propensity to adopt green practices depends on several factors, including sustainable supplier cooperation, degree of commitment to embrace green initiatives, government interventions in the form of incentives and guidelines support, and the presence of a legal framework. The findings of this research will enrich the understanding of policymakers and managers to formulate strategies for advancing GPP structured and sustainable implementation in PSOs. The study's findings will also benefit green technology sector advancement through the widespread adoption of GPP.

Transitioning to sustainable mobility in Lima, Peru. Are e-scooter sharing initiatives part of the problem or the solution?

Micro-mobility has increased in urban environments to reduce dependence on private vehicles. While electric micro-mobility alternatives are supposed to reduce environmental impacts, certain studies suggest that this can depend on the transport mode they substitute. In parallel, despite growing efforts, urban areas in developing and emerging economies struggle to implement sustainable mobility programs at a city-wide level. In March 2019 the first dockless e-scooter rental service appeared in the city of Lima, Peru. Although the social and environmental impacts of dockless e-scooters have been the center of multiple studies, these are mostly based in North America and Europe. Therefore, the main objective of the current study was to use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to address the environmental profile of e-scooter use in districts of central Lima. All stages of the life-cycle of e-scooters were modelled considering local conditions, from manufacture to end-of-life. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to account for the variability in environmental impact based on five parameters: lifespan, battery range, remaining battery charge, collection distance and collection vehicle. Results show that over two thirds of impacts are linked to manufacturing thanks to the low-carbon profile of electricity production in Peru, which lowers the burdens in the use phase, making e-scooter use competitive in the local market as compared to electric bikes or motorcycles. However, replacement trends show that net environmental gains are not always obtained. Poor maintenance and derived lifespan or battery range are important sources of variability for the impact categories assessed. Although e-scooters show potential for their implementation in developing cities with similar characteristics to Lima, we recommend that site-specific studies should be conducted to foster adaptive management strategies which take into account the means of transport being substituted by e-scooters.

A Method to Include Life Cycle Assessment Results in Choosing by Advantage (CBA) Multicriteria Decision Analysis. A Case Study for Seismic Retrofit in Peruvian Primary Schools

Building information modeling (BIM) is an emerging technology that improves visualization, understanding, and transparency in construction projects. Its use in Latin America and the Caribbean (LA&C), while still scarce, is developing in combination with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods, such as the choosing by advantages (CBA) method. Despite the holistic nature of MCDM methods, the inclusion of life cycle environmental metrics is lagging in construction projects in LA&C. However, recent studies point toward the need to optimize the synergies between BIM and life cycle assessment (LCA), in which a method like CBA could allow improving the quality of the decisions. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to integrate LCA and CBA methods to identify the effect that the inclusion of environmental impacts can have on decision-making in public procurement, as well as comparing how this final decision differs from an exclusively LCA-oriented interpretation of the results. Once the LCA was performed, a set of additional criteria for the CBA method were fixed, including transparency, technical, and social indicators. Thereafter, a stakeholder participative workshop was held in order to gather experts to elucidate on the final decision. The methodology was applied to a relevant construction sector problem modelled with BIM in the city of Lima (Peru), which consisted of three different construction techniques needed to retrofit educational institutions. Results from the LCA-oriented assessment, which was supported by Monte Carlo simulation, revealed a situation in which the masonry-based technique showed significantly lower environmental impacts than the remaining two options. However, when a wider range of technical, social, and transparency criteria are added to the environmental indicators, this low-carbon technique only prevailed in those workshop tables in which environmental experts were present and under specific computational assumptions, whereas teams with a higher proportion of government members were inclined to foster alternatives that imply less bureaucratic barriers. Finally, the results constitute an important milestone when it comes to including environmental factors in public procurement in LA&C.