Sustainability as a Strategic Compass for Defense procurement
“Our biggest challenge in this new century is to take an idea that seems abstract: sustainable development” said Nobel Prize Kofi Annan in the early 2000s. Since that declaration, sustainability has increasingly taken on clear principles of concreteness, fostering a profitable “comprehensive approach” in the common understanding of businesses and stakeholders at all levels to pay attention to social and environmental issues. The “sustainable approach”, in fact, should be the strategic compass with which even Public Administrations – of which the Defence sector represents a portion – orient their choices and criteria – primarily environmental and social – in public procurement, thus achieving Sustainable Public Procurement (Spp). In line with this change, the present work aims to define some tools to guide Defence procurement towards sustainability. Initially, the evolution of the concept of “sustainability” as “sustainable development” is examined, between environmental protection and economic growth. Subsequently, emphasis is placed on the strategic function of public procurement as a potential driver to address challenges; a catalyst for changes and reforms, a lever of public policies; a stimulus for the social and entrepreneurial fabric, and consequently, a booster for the national economic system. Finally, a project for a “sustainable public contract” valid for all Armed Forces is designed: the procurement of military uniforms. The project is developed using innovative negotiation tools made available by the new Procurement Code. In this context, the centrality of virtuous management decision-making and the “comprehensive approach”, aimed at involving and empowering the multitude of actors and utilizing all the tools of the Public Procurement dashboard available, is highlighted.
