Procurement

About: Procurement is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 25669 publications have been published within this topic receiving 334145 citations.

Restaurant and food service life cycle assessment and development of a sustainability standard

Abstract: There is no clear guidance for responsible food service operations to reduce their environmental footprint, so the efforts put forth by a restaurant may not have the environmental impact intended. As a result, Green Seal conducted life cycle assessment research on restaurants and food service operations to define priorities for environmental improvement. This information was then used to develop a sustainability standard and certification (i.e., ecolabel) program. The life cycle assessment study focused on the day-to-day activities of running a restaurant, including direct and indirect contributions. To do this, a restaurant and food service operations model was developed by grouping the operational activities into four subsystems: food procurement, food storage, food preparation and cooking, and service/support. Data was collected from a range of restaurants in the United States. The impact categories examined included respiratory inorganics, acidification/eutrophication, fossil fuels, ecotoxicity, carcinogens, land use, and climate change. Of all the subsystems, food procurement contributed hotspots in all impact categories examined. On the contrary, the food storage subsystem contributed no hotspot in any of the impact categories examined. Normalization of the results confirmed that food procurement was the largest source of environmental impacts. In addition, it was found that the impacts of food services were dominated by land use, respiratory inorganics, and fossil fuels. The impacts could be reduced with various preferable practices. As a result, a sustainability standard for restaurants and food services was developed to include these preferable practices, the Green Seal Standard for Food Services, GS-46. This study presents an overview of the main environmental impacts from the operation of a restaurant or food service. The results provided direction in the development of a sustainability standard and ecolabel program. This standard, the Green Seal Standard for Restaurants and Food Services, GS-46, is a comprehensive framework for operations to make meaningful reductions in their environmental impact. Further, operations that meet the requirements in the GS-46 standard have demonstrated significant reduction in their environmental impact. Finally, it was found that this environmental impact reduction can be done without added cost (e.g., cost neutral, with potential for financial gains).

Defense Procurement Fraud, Penalties, and Contractor Influence

Abstract: Press reports of investigations of fraud, indictments, and suspensions in military procurement are associated with significantly negative average abnormal returns in the stocks of affected firms. Abnormal stock returns are significantly less negative, however, for firms ranking among the top 100 defense contractors than for unranked contractors, even after one controls for firm size, the frauds' characteristics, and the firm's recidivism. Unranked contractors are penalized heavily for procurment frauds, experiencing both a decline in market value and a subsequent loss in government‐derived revenues. Furthermore, these losses are related to the percentage of the firm's revenues that derive from government contracts. Influential contractors, in contrast, are penalized lightly, experiencing negligible changes in share value and government contract revenue.

Urban Competitiveness and Public Procurement for Innovation

Abstract: Public procurement for innovation represents one of the least studied demand-side innovation policy tools that can be used to increase urban competitiveness. Evidence suggests that local and regional governments are becoming more involved in procuring innovative solutions, but overall knowledge remains limited regarding how they get involved and what effects this involvement has had. Based on a study of Nordic–Baltic Sea cities, the current study reveals that public procurement for innovative solutions has a positive impact on the providers and that urban authorities can act as market creators. The study also demonstrates that public procurement is not seen as an inherent part of innovation policy. A lack of awareness exists among city officials about the connection between procurement and innovation, and local authorities tend not to be willing to take risks when promoting innovation through public procurement. Due to the positive effects, however, further development of related policies is recommended.