Mapping of Environmental Spend Analyses Among Municipalities in Sweden

The survey study shows that 39 out of 57 municipalities conduct an environmental spend analysis to get an overview, calculate, map, or get a current assessment of the climate impact of their purchases. All of these aims to prioritize which categories and procurements the municipality should focus on to apply the most effective measures. The remaining 18 municipalities mention that the work is part of sustainability efforts to achieve set targets, such as targets for a climate-neutral municipality or a carbon dioxide budget.

A selection of responses from municipalities:

“To map the climate impact of purchases and distribute them among different departments.”

“To work on reducing the climate impact of our purchases in line with the long-term goal of becoming a climate-neutral municipality.”

“It is related to our goal in the Environmental Program. To get an overall picture of the organization’s emissions and work strategically on emission reductions.”

How can the results be used?

Most municipalities responded that the results are used or will be used to identify and prioritize areas where better environmental requirements need to be set. It was also mentioned that results are wanted as an educational tool to understand the organization’s consumption, as support for procurement staff, and as support for departments in setting climate targets. The results are also said to increase engagement around sustainable procurement or provide confirmation that the municipality is working in the right direction, thus verifying that the municipality is reaching its environmental targets.

A selection of responses from municipalities:

“We want to identify areas where we need to set even more, better, or different environmental requirements.”

“It can be used in many ways, both for communication, as decision support for prioritization, and to anchor why we should focus on these issues.”

“To clarify where the focus should be. To see which procurements we should put energy into strengthen requirements and what we need to follow up on better.”

What advantages have you seen from using environmental spend analysis?

The municipalities that have conducted an environmental spend analysis (17#) answered what advantages they have seen with using environmental spend analysis:

• Don’t know (8#)
• Raises awareness, increases knowledge, provides the opportunity to analyze and follow up (4#)
• Good communication tool to highlight impact (3#)
• Follow-up against financial budget, can be applied in management model (1#)
• Relatively simple and cost-free (1#)

A selection of responses from municipalities:

“It is very useful to have a mapping of the entire city's purchases and see how different categories compare to each other; it has shown that some purchases have greater or lesser impact than expected. It has also been rewarding to learn the method, but above all to delve into the city’s purchases. It has given a better understanding of what we buy today and provides a good foundation for further developing the work and updating the analysis when new data is available.”

What disadvantages have you seen with using environmental spend analysis?

The municipalities that have conducted an environmental spend analysis also answered what disadvantages they have seen with using environmental spend analysis:

• Extensive manual work to categorize and match purchases with indicators (6#)
• Difficult to follow up/see reductions/practical implementation (5#)
• Standard values/general climate indicators (4#)
• Don’t know (2#)

A selection of responses from municipalities:

“Despite clear figures, it is a challenge to implement this in practice when it comes to procurements because the purchasing responsibility is dispersed, and many other goals in each procurement are prioritized over climate considerations.”

“Based on standard values and prices from a certain year, which makes it difficult to follow up.”

“It is difficult to see a reduction in climate impact even if we set higher requirements during procurement. Even if volumes or purchase prices increase.”

In what way can the climate impact of purchases become an effective procurement criterion?

18 of the 57 municipalities with experience in environmental spend analysis believe that products’ climate impact expressed in quantitative terms is a useful and valuable procurement criterion. It can help in evaluating bids and selecting products with lower climate impact. However, this requires that suppliers are familiar with the concept and can provide information developed in the same way, for example through EPDs. Another requirement mentioned is that it requires a system to keep track of all data, as it involves many products.

A selection of responses from municipalities:

“If suppliers are familiar with the concept, then absolutely.”

“Yes, it makes it easier to evaluate bids.”

“Yes, if it is used to select products with lower climate impact.”