# Green Public Procurement for Accelerating the Transition towards Sustainable Freight Transport
## 2 Literature Review  
### Transition through Green Public Procurement  
The governance of sustainability transitions is an increasingly important research topic, as the pace of transition depends on the degrees to which transitions are managed or incentivised [22]. Within the field of sustainability transitions, Transition Management has been particularly prominent in devising governance strategies for steering and accelerating transitions in different sectors [23; 24]. Transition Management is a \"prescriptive framework\" that allows for creating \"space for short-term innovation and develop long-term sustainability linked to desired societal transitions\" [25]. Specifically, Transition Management points to particular governance activities (i.e., strategic, tactical, operational, reflexive) that allow for dealing with the complexity of sustainability problems and the societies that they are emmeshed in. Within the framework of Transition Management, green public procurement (GPP) could be an example of tactical governance activities, which intervene into established structures such as rules and regulations, routines, and institutions. Within the scholarly field of sustainability transitions, green public procurement could be considered an expression of Strategic Niche Management. This field of research tends to focus on two ways in which emerging technologies and innovations can diffuse and become competitive in existing markets or become dominant in new niche markets. Scholars of Strategic Niche Management are thus concerned with how emergent innovations could be nurtured and matured in protective spaces that shield them from market competition until they are sufficiently competitive [26]. Thus, green public procurement could also be a fruitful strategy for accelerating transitions when following ideas of Strategic Niche Management. Green public procurement could nurture niche innovations by creating markets for specific technologies or for any technologies that reduce emissions. Green public procurement is therefore an example on how sustainable transitions could be steered on low-level governance. The potential for stimulating sustainable innovations and technological changes by public procurement is high in the transport and logistics sector. The sector is undergoing rapid changes due to digitalization in the supply chain and forcing changes in the individual behavioural pattern such as increased online shopping, home delivery services, and new consumer patterns. It is therefore a golden opportunity to link green public procurement to the transport sector and identify its possibilities and challenges as a tool towards achieving CO\({}_{2}\)-free city logistics by 2030 [13; 18; 27]. Ref. [28] has investigated the success factors in implementing GPP and identified four criteria to succeed with the implementation of GPP: (1) consistent and operational policy goals; (2) nation-wide campaigns for GPP; (3) ethics, professionalism, capacity, and knowledge among employers; and (4) systems for checks and balances among actors in the entire purchasing process. Ref. [29] has examined GPP in Swedish municipalities and observed that most previous measures to curb emissions from transport in urban areas focussed on passenger transport, and that urban freight has almost been forgotten. Ref. [29] also mentions that there are exceptions, and that knowledge from the few studied municipalities might be transferred to other municipalities to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable freight transport. Ref. [30] identifies significant differences in GPP uptake between countries and national levels: the countries working most with GPP are characterised by a large governmental sector, and municipalities and local administrations are more prone to work with GPP than authorities on EU and national levels. Ref. [31] has developed a method for GPP, which was tested on public procurers of transport in Sweden. This method is a participatory method, seeking to enhance the procurer's understanding and knowledge about practical needs.