  Sustainable procurement requires organizations to align their purchasing
behavior with regard to broader goals linked to resource efficiency, climate
change, social responsibility and other sustainability criteria. The level of
sustainability in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) hardware
procurement is analyzed for two reasons: First, ICT hardware belongs to the six
key product groups in sustainable procurement. Second, ICT in general is
expected to be an important enabler for low-carbon economies, providing
solutions to reduce Green-House Gas (GHG) emissions. While the advantages of
sustainable procurement are obvious, certain barriers hinder the adoption in
day-to-day procurement. This case study on ICT hardware discusses the three
important barriers "lack of clear definitions per product group", "missing
market intelligence about sustainable products" and "inflexible procedures and
attitudes as barriers for innovative approaches" based on an in-depth analysis
of sustainable procurement of ICT hardware by the public sector in Switzerland.
To this end, tender data published on the national procurement platform
simap.ch is screened for sustainability criteria using the Common Procurement
Vocabulary (CPV) nomenclature to identify relevant ICT projects. The results
reveal to which extent such criteria as well as their determinants are
currently included in public tenders. Using two different approaches, only a
small number of tenders were found containing sustainability criteria of a wide
range from basic to comprehensive. The overall performance of Swiss public
procurement is benchmarked by comparing the identified sustainability criteria
with available criteria from international key actors in sustainable
procurement. Thus, this analysis provides novel insights on how public agencies
today take sustainability into account when procuring ICT hardware.
