t Policy makers can employ different instruments to address environmental
policy objectives, and the guiding principles for a consistent system of environmental
policy are (1) the policies should be effective, (2) there should be one
objective per instrument, and (3) multiple objectives and multiple policy instruments
must be mutually independent of each other. This paper evaluates these three
principles for green public procurement (GPP). As an illustrative example, the
analysis refers to the Swedish policy of using public purchase of organic foods as a
policy instrument to increase the certified organic agricultural area as a share of the
total agricultural area. Our analysis shows that GPP fails to satisfy principles (1) and
(3), and the only way to satisfy principle (2) is then to have just one objective with
the procurement, i.e., to run the operations. GPP might still have a positive environmental
impact, but, if applied, the procuring authority has to be very specific
with the one-to-one matching of criterion and objective.t Policy makers can employ different instruments to address environmental
policy objectives, and the guiding principles for a consistent system of environmental
policy are (1) the policies should be effective, (2) there should be one
objective per instrument, and (3) multiple objectives and multiple policy instruments
must be mutually independent of each other. This paper evaluates these three
principles for green public procurement (GPP). As an illustrative example, the
analysis refers to the Swedish policy of using public purchase of organic foods as a
policy instrument to increase the certified organic agricultural area as a share of the
total agricultural area. Our analysis shows that GPP fails to satisfy principles (1) and
(3), and the only way to satisfy principle (2) is then to have just one objective with
the procurement, i.e., to run the operations. GPP might still have a positive environmental
impact, but, if applied, the procuring authority has to be very specific
with the one-to-one matching of criterion and objective.

• Green public procurement and multiple environmental objectives