The contribution of green public food procurement to sustainability: evidence from two case studies in Spain

Abstract

Green Public Food Procurement (GPFP) has revealed itself to bean ally for achieving ecological transition objectives, howeverthere is little work attempting to assess its contribution. Thiswork proposes a set of sustainability and health indicators thatcomprise a tool able to evaluate the performance of GPFP.A Delphi analysis and a participatory process is used to deter-mine Key Performance Indicators that have been tested throughtwo case studies in Spain. The results obtained show that thepresence of short marketing circuits and food sovereignty andinstitutions rooted in the territory contribute to improved eco-nomic sustainability and good performance in terms of health.However, for environmental issues the performance is some-what lacking, as instruments such as renewable energies andthe circular economy are not implemented on a local scale.Elements linked to territorial cohesion and social capital arekey for the principles of social and labor justice, as well asgovernance, to prevail. The Mediterranean diet integral to thecase studies presented results in adequate health indicators.These types of indicators would be a useful tool for introducingsustainable food certification as a driving force for changing thefood model