3rd PLATE Conference
September 18 – 20, 2019
Berlin, Germany
Nils F. Nissen
Melanie Jaeger-Erben (eds.)
Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin
Scalabrino, Chiara; Navarrete Salvador, Antonio; Oliva Martinez, Jose M.:
Promoting life cycle thinking: a training of public offi cers for green
public procurement . In: Nissen, Nils F.; Jaeger-Erben, Melanie (Eds.):
PLATE – Product Lifetimes And The Environment : Proceedings, 3rd PLATE
CONFERENCE, BERLIN, GERMANY, 18 – 20 September 2019. Berlin: Uni-
versitätsverlag der TU Berlin, 2021. pp. 691 – 698. ISBN 978-3-7983-3125-9
(online). https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-9253.
This article – except for quotes, fi gures and where otherwise noted – is
licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0).
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
691
3rd PLATE 2019 Conference
Berlin, Germany, 18-20 September 2019
Promoting Life Cycle Thinking: a Training of Public Officers for
Green Public Procurement
Scalabrino, Chiara(a); Navarrete Salvador, Antonio(b); Oliva Martínez, José María(b)
a) Regional Environmental Protection Agency of Liguria, Genoa, Italy
b) Department of Didactics, University of Cadiz, Cadiz, Spain
Keywords: Education for Sustainable Consumption and Production; Training for Sustainability;
Employee Engagement; Green Public Procurement; Life Cycle Thinking.
Abstract: Several European Union (EU) policy tools, like Green Public Procurement (GPP) or the EU
Ecolabel, aim to reduce the impacts of products along the whole life cycle. Nevertheless, despite having
existed for decades, we observed that their use is not yet widespread, also in institutions that have
environmental protection as a mission.
This study aims at exploring the impact of an experimental training course (“Introduction to the Circular
Economy and Life Cycle Thinking”) delivered to a group of public servants by looking at the group’s
comprehension and value given to the importance and feasibility of activating more Sustainable
Consumption and Production patterns, such as GPP. The course design was based on the research
and practice framework provided by Education for Sustainable Consumption and Production (ESCP).
This was drawn from an idea of transformative Education for Sustainability (ES), seen from a
constructivist, critical and complex perspective. Particular attention was given both to the cognitive and
emotional aspects of the learning process. Thus, the course was specifically tailored to the participants.
The different training sessions were carried out in 2018 and involved a total of 95 public servants.
Mainly qualitative methods (document analysis, observation, quantitative and qualitative questionnaires)
were used for the research. The findings show that the learning activities, which designed, performed
and evaluated in this study using ESCP principles, are valuable to draw the participants’ attention to
many sustainability topics that they are rarely exposed to. Moreover, they demonstrate to contribute to
inspire sustainable actions. Overall, further research and implementation of extended processes of this
kind should benefit the innovation of professional training and accelerate the transition from a linear to a
Circular Economy (CE).
Introduction
Public procurement in the European Union (EU)
comprise over 14% of GDP (European
Commission - EC, 2019). Therefore, Green
Public Procurement (GPP) and other voluntary
policy tools, such as the European Ecolabel,
have a strong potential to promote Sustainable
Consumption and Production (SCP) and a
Circular Economy (CE). At the national level,
most EU Member States have published GPP
National Action Plans (EC, 2018), however,
there are no systematic statistics in the Member
States (EC, 2016) on the real GPP uptake.
In particular, as Sustainability professionals
based in Italy and Spain, we noticed that,
although these tools have existed for decades,
up to 2017 they had barely spread when
compared to the World’s environmental-socio-
economic problems; even in institutions that
have environmental protection as a mission.
On the other hand, from our experience as
Education for Sustainability (ES) or Education
for Sustainable Development (ESD)
professionals, we observed that in Italy and
Spain the training on sustainability issues,
such as GPP, is almost totally focused on
transferring information without taking into
account participants’ background knowledge
and interests, mainly administrative personnel.
In short, more transformative methodologies
characteristic of ES do not seem to be applied.
However, to promote the change from a Linear
to a Circular Economy, we must acknowledge
that the irresponsible and hyperconsumeristic
behaviours of our society are comparable to
those of a sedentary person addicted to
exceedingly abundant food, high in fat, sugar
and salt. If information delivered within a few
hours was sufficient to learn and find the
strength to eat healthier, overweight people
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3rd PLATE Conference Berlin, Germany, 18-20 September 2019
Scalabrino C., Navarrete Salvador A., Oliva Martínez J. M.
Promoting life cycle thinking: a training of public officers for green public
procurement
would not exist today. Similarly, the influence of
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) may remain
limited if it enters the decision-making with no
anchoring in organisational culture and
decision-makers personal world-views
(Heiskanen, 2000). When combined, Education
about and for Sustainability provide people also
with the capacity to motivate, plan and manage
change towards sustainability within their
organisation (Tilbury, Crawley and Berry,
2005).
Indeed, there is international recognition that an
improvement in the quality of education, in
addition to quantity, is critical to advance in the
Sustainable Development agenda (Ofei-Manu
and Didham, 2018). “We believe it is necessary
to establish a thorough understanding, not the
least among leaders, of the character,
magnitude and urgency of the sustainability
challenge as well as the self-benefit of
competent proactivity for sustainability”
(Broman and Robèrt, 2017, pg. 18).
These reflections fed our interest in
investigating the potential of ES, traditionally
directed to children (Scalabrino and Oliva,
2013), in involving adults in more conscious
and sustainable personal actions. As Tilbury
(2011) affirms, many studies agree that
educators associate ESD with active and
participatory learning processes, despite the
lack of empirical evidence that demonstrates
the effectiveness of these methods in achieving
the objectives of Sustainable Development. We
focused our research on an Education for
Sustainable Consumption and Production
(ESCP) drawn from an idea of transformative
(Mezirow, 1991; Sterling, 2011; Blake and
Sterling, 2013; Sterling and Baines, 2002) ES,
seen from a complex (García, 2002, Bonil,
Junyen and Pujol, 2010, Bonil and Pujol, 2005),
critical and constructivist (García, 2002, García,
Rodríguez and Solís, 2008) perspective.
Context and research question
The opportunity to explore the contribution that
this ES can make to professional training and to
the transition towards a more sustainable
economy arises from an acceleration of the
formal commitments of several international
institutions, starting in 2015. Among them, the
Sustainable Development Goals of the UN’s
2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement to
prevent dangerous climate change. At the
European level, the Circular Economy Strategy,
and at the Italian level, the obligation to include
Minimum Environmental Criteria in all public
bodies’ procurement procedures and various
Regional Action Plans for GPP.
Finally, in this context of positive turning point
for the Sustainable Development policies
started over half a century ago, in 2018 we
proposed to develop and study the one day
workshop "Introduction to the Circular Economy
and Life Cycle Thinking". In particular, our
research scenario was one of the 19 Italian
Regional Environmental Protection Agencies.
These are organisations, which are in charge of
the environmental monitoring and control (air,
waste, marine and terrestrial waters,
meteorology etc.) in their regional territory. The
group of individuals studied was formed by the
95 participants in the eight editions of the eight
hours course. Among them, public employees
with administrative profiles and, in the vast
majority of cases, environmental technicians or
professionals with a degree in environmental
and natural sciences, biology, geology,
chemistry, physics, computer science and
engineering.
As anticipated, it is complex to evaluate the
effectiveness of a training activity designed to
provide concepts, scientific data and ideas for
reflection, to promote critical thinking and
reasoning abilities in the context of "Wicked
problems”, to move emotions and stimulate
individual and collective action. “Additionally,
the impact of ESD interventions may be a
long-term engagement with issues and
questioning assumptions, rather than
immediate measurable results” (O'Flaherty and
Liddy, 2017, pg. 13).
Nevertheless, being aware of the complexity of
reality, does not mean giving up trying to know
it (Mayer, 1998). For all these reasons we
chose the qualitative methodology, which
explores social phenomena from the
perspective of the actor, seeking to understand
through descriptive data, such as the words
and behaviours of the research participants
(Scalabrino, 2017). In qualitative research,
quality and in depth information is preferred to
quantity. In this contest, there are questions to
explore rather than initial hypotheses. In our
case:
What is the impact of the course on the
participants' perception of the importance and
viability of Sustainable Consumption and
Production?
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3rd PLATE Conference Berlin, Germany, 18-20 September 2019
Scalabrino C., Navarrete Salvador A., Oliva Martínez J. M.
Promoting life cycle thinking: a training of public officers for green public
procurement
The journey
The journey that led to the completion of eight
editions of the course included different phases.
As shown in Figure 1, some overlap in time,
while in other cases different qualitative
instruments were used to collect the information
necessary for the design of the course, its
continuous feedback and its final evaluation.
Context analysis, design and realisation
Given the interest in developing GPP in the
organisation, we started an analysis of the
global, national, regional and organisational
context, that continued throughout the journey.
From the preliminary analysis, a first
introductory awareness course was organised.
The aim was to foster a systemic vision of the
interconnected problems of the World and the
solutions, highlighting complex relations
between topics that, at first, people usually see
distant from each other. Further, to exercise
critical thinking, move emotions and contribute
to motivate more responsible decisions.
The course was designed and carried out
taking as reference the main components of
ESCP, drawn from an idea of transformative
ES, from a complex, critical and constructivist
perspective (Scalabrino, 2017).
In this framework, the trainer will make "a
reasonable use of the different didactic
methods, designing the educational process
according to the desired objectives and
following a coherent unifying thread... Will
adapt the contents and methods to the
participants, their previous knowledge and
personal interests, and will feed back the
design and implementation of the educational
process based on the continuous evaluation of
the results and the reactions of the apprentices
during the process" (Scalabrino, 2017, pg. 69).
In addition, some "organising issues" or
"thematic containers, essential for a teaching-
learning process for Sustainable Consumption
and Production", are proposed (Scalabrino,
2017, pg. 67). The contents of the course,
based on the training needs detected during the
preliminary study, were organised around these
"organising issues" (Figure 2).
The final version of the program included
several thematic areas of intervention (Figure
2) that were approached with different flexible,
dynamic and participatory teaching tools,
capable of working both cognitive and affective
aspects.
Figure 1. Diagram of the phases of the journey and the instruments used.
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3rd PLATE Conference Berlin, Germany, 18-20 September 2019
Scalabrino C., Navarrete Salvador A., Oliva Martínez J. M.
Promoting Life Cycle Thinking: a Training of Public Officers for Green Public
Procurement
Figure 2. Thematic areas of intervention of the course, in the framework of Education for Sustainable
Consumption and Production (ESCP) from a complex, critical and constructivist perspective.
In principle two editions of the course, of 8
hours each, were scheduled. Then, due to the
wide demand, they became eight. Moreover,
being the participation on a voluntary basis, we
insisted in the involvement of key, for GPP,
employees
The course evaluation and research
instruments
Assessing the outcomes of a learning process,
which occurs through personal reflection,
reconstruction and social interaction and by
which an individual assimilates information,
ideas and values and thus acquires knowledge,
know-how, skills and/or competences
(Cedefop, 2008) is complex. Therefore, the
following qualitative research tools were
applied:
The analysis of documents (poster of the
main socio-economic-environmental concerns
and spontaneous emails).
The participant observation, reflected in the
notes in which the educator compiled the
information obtained through various
evaluation activities integrated in the course.
The Likert satisfaction questionnaire of the
training department, completed by 67
participants at the end of the course.
A questionnaire with open questions to
explore the feelings at the end of the course,
the main learnings and the proposals for the
future. This was tested by three participants
with experience in education and training. The
final version, that permitted the optional name
insertion, was sent as a Google form a week
after the last edition, to the people who
participated in the whole course or almost (89
of the 95). This is because a course with an
holistic approach, carried out with
constructivist methodologies and with a
common thread that links a sequence of
activities and contents that is important it
remains complete, is like a film in which each
dialogue, corporal expression and scene are
fundamental for the enjoyment and full
understanding. Being a voluntary participation
action, we did not insist on its completion and
the respondents were 40.
Main findings
From the context analysis phase, considerable
premises emerged:
With regard to the level of integration of
sustainability, there were no visible signs of
greater consideration of the environment,
taking into account the objectives of the
organisation and in comparison with other
private organisations committed to
sustainability.
During the course, many participants
indicated that they did not have a clear and
shared vision of the organisation’s mission.
The individual knowledge of the employees
was very specific (on the control and status of
some environmental aspect of the regional
territory) and, in general, more global and
systemic knowledge on the state of the world,
life cycle thinking and sustainability
instruments seemed to lack.
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3rd PLATE Conference Berlin, Germany, 18-20 September 2019
Scalabrino C., Navarrete Salvador A., Oliva Martínez J. M.
Promoting life cycle thinking: a training of public officers for green public
procurement
The participants’ main concerns were social
(Figure 3).
Figure 3. Participants’ previous main concerns.
From the information gathered after the course,
the following main results emerged:
The quantitative analysis of the 67 Likert
questionnaires indicated an almost full level of
satisfaction with the course. However, of even
more interest were the comments in the
space for notes of the Likert questionnaire
and in the spontaneous emails:
"Finally an interesting course"
"The topics discussed are very interesting and
involving, they should be deepened more"
"...topics of extreme interest, ...all the staff
was satisfied and enriched".
Many of the above informants highlighted the
need for everyone, including managers, to
participate in a course like this:
"It must be made mandatory for all,
employees and managers. The management
must start investing to reduce environmental
impacts, since we are an organisation for the
protection of the environment"
"I try small actions to cause the least possible
impact... Presentation/information that goes
straight to the heart, there should be other
courses like this and... more circular economy
actions in the place where we work"
"I hope... it finds more and more spaces, in
the organisation and outside".
According to the 40 completed open
questionnaires:
The course seemed to have had a significant
positive impact on the perception of the
importance and viability of Sustainable
Consumption and Production. For many
informants it was interesting, enlightening and
necessary (Figure 4c, d, e and f). Most of the
aspects that were more appreciated were
related to the educational tools (Figure 4e).
To give some examples:
"The experience of the closing video was the
icing, but the whole course was a tasty cake"
"The course method allowed participation at
the front line, the issues and their exposition:
without personal judgment, the lecturer's
capacity to support with communicative
expressions of ‘relief’, the alternation of
information and images that are emotionally
difficult to sustain (for example, the image of
the slaves)”.
From the feelings declared at the end of the
course, the degree of satisfaction and the
desire to propose actions to continue the
journey, the treatment of the most
overwhelming issues (for example, the state
of the world) with respect to the more
motivating ones was quite balanced and the
reaction of "discouragement" did not surpass
the stimulus to personal action (Figure 4a).
There was a wish in the group to activate
good practices in the organisation and to
deepen the topics covered by the course
(Figure 5). It should be noted that a quarter of
them spontaneously specified that they would
expect that future training and information
actions to update themselves on the topics of
the course, should be, using their words:
"continuous", "not intermittent", "cyclically
repeated", "periodic", "scheduled"...
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3rd PLATE Conference Berlin, Germany, 18-20 September 2019
Scalabrino C., Navarrete Salvador A., Oliva Martínez J. M.
Promoting life cycle thinking: a training of public officers for green public
procurement
Figure 4. Main results of the qualitative questionnaire on the course "Introduction to a Circular Economy
and Life Cycle Thinking". The histograms indicate the % of informants that use the keywords on the left.
Figure 5. Proposals to continue the journey in the organisation.
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3rd PLATE Conference Berlin, Germany, 18-20 September 2019
Scalabrino C., Navarrete Salvador A., Oliva Martínez J. M.
Promoting Life Cycle Thinking: a Training of Public Officers for Green Public
Procurement
Conclusions
“Sustainability is not a destination... but an
ongoing learning process. Educators need to
build the capacity... to address sustainability
issues at a more systemic level, and to
collaborate with multiple stakeholders for their
resolution” (Tilbury, Adams and Keogh, 2005,
pg. 27).
In general, further research and longer
learning processes, as the one presented in
this paper, could help to innovate professional
training to accelerate the transition from a
linear to a Circular Economy. Transformative
(Mezirow, 1991; Sterling, 2011; Blake and
Sterling, 2013; Sterling and Baines, 2002) ES
approaches like the one studied, and not the
transmissive ones, should be taken more into
consideration in policy making, to support the
implementation of sustainability policy tools.
In particular, for the organisation studied,
which has institutional purposes of
environmental protection, in principle there is
an important potential for improvement in
terms of sustainability integration.
Results suggest that a training approach from
a transformative Education for Sustainable
Consumption and Production, based on a
complex, critical and constructivist perspective,
could contribute to engage the employees of
the organisations that decide to move towards
sustainability (for example, by activating Green
Public Procurement, mobility management or
energy savings and efficiency), so to be more
effective. For example, well-trained and
motivated employees can contribute to the
important task of monitoring green public
contracts.
To accelerate the transition to a Circular
Economy, this type of courses could be
proposed as compulsory and perhaps with the
incentive of training credits to meet the training
needs that many people are unaware of or
that, a priori, do not wish to fill. Training could
also be supported by other measures, such as
economic incentives, internal work groups or
legislation.
"The essence of any organisation depends on
the thought and interaction of its members"
(Senge, 2005, pg. 50), as in a living organism,
where the interest of the organs that compose
it must coincide with that of the whole
(Eguiguren and Barroso, 2011). Thus, to
achieve greater sustainability, an organisation
should share a clear mission and vision of the
future that integrates sustainability (Doppelt,
2003). Indeed, during the different editions of
the course, many participants highlighted the
need for all, included managers, to participate
in a course like this.
The research had some limits that should be
taken into account in the design of any course
for sustainability in any organisation, as well as
for future research.
For example, the course studied was short in
time and not supported by other organisational
change instruments. When courses of this kind
are mandatory, even for management, it would
be important to facilitate the participation of all
the employees, as well as to investigate the
inclusion of specific activities on personal
values.
It would be of interest to further explore the
attitudes towards learning and the degrees of
satisfaction of employees who voluntarily
attend non compulsory courses and the ones
of employees that do not, to study how
attitudes influence their attendance.
Moreover, as proposed by O'Flaherty and
Liddy (2017), it would be important to present
in more detail the values and beliefs of the
researcher/educator. Further, to evaluate
among the results, the participants’
development of a “bottom up activism for
positive organisational change" in the longer
term. In our opinion, it should be possible to go
beyond the theoretical proposals of the
participants to continue the journey, for
example through detailed participant
observation of employees’ actions in the
longer term.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to their respective
institutions (the Regional Environmental
Protection Agency of Liguria and the University
of Cadiz), which supported the study and to
the personnel that supported the organisation
of the course and its evaluation: the
Administrative Director, the Training
Department coordinator, the interviewees, the
workshop’s participants, the questionnaire’s
testers and the informants.
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procurement
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