# Green Public Procurement for Accelerating the Transition towards Sustainable Freight Transport
## 1 Introduction  
Transforming an entire mobility system in a more environmentally sustainable direction requires attention to the many different domains that transport systems comprise. Transitioning personal mobility has already been well explored by scholars in regard to electric cars [1; 2; 3], while the hard-to-abate shipping sector has been increasingly recognised as a paramount research objective [4; 5; 6]. One transport domain still insufficiently recognised in research on sustainability transitions is road-based freight transport. Despite accelerated technological innovation within freight transport [7; 8; 9], it has yet to be explored as a transition site. This paper aims to contribute to enhance knowledge in this area by turning to the Norwegian freight transport sector. The freight transport sector is characterised by a wide range of companies and operators, both international and domestic, targeting wider or more niche parts of the logistics market, and applying a variety of business models and contracts. On a national level in Norway, road transport in 2020 represented 17% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Heavy vehicles and vans accounted for 49% of these emissions. Other negative side effects of freight transport are traffic noise, congestion, air pollutions and traffic accidents, which are closely related to vehicle milage travelled [10]. Like any other transport sector, freight transport poses a series of climate and environmental challenges, particularly in cities, that have increasingly compelled local authorities to incorporate freight into climate and planning strategies [11]. However, freight service providers are mainly aware of their own emission, and several large actors have incorporated their own goals for low or zero emissions operations within their self-defined time horizon. The European unions' (EU) White Paper [12] and the following EU's working document entitled \"A call to action on Urban logistics\" [13] highlights the need to be aware of logistics and freight transport, thus being a part of public planning processes [14]. Green public procurement (GPP) is an instrument used by public actors to purchase goods and services with a lower environmental impact in their lifetime than goods and services otherwise bought. Green public procurement in the EU is not mandatory, but with several policies, the EU seeks to stimulate for the use of green procurement. In 2016, they launched the Handbook of GPP, which may be applied as a guide for buying green [15]. In Norway, however, green public procurement is one of several strategic instruments for reducing emissions and achieving Norway's environmental goals [16]. In the European context, public procurements have increased in the last 20 years, and now constitute 14% of the EU's gross domestic product (GDP) [17]. In Norway, public authorities spend approximately 600 billion NOK annually on public procurements, and the products and services procured by public authorities represent 16% of the national total emissions [16]. As procurers of large volumes of goods and services, public authorities are able to move the priorities of commercial freight service providers in a greener and more sustainable direction. Although ambitions have been defined at both an international and national level, procurement processes on regional and local levels play an important role in fulfilling the ambitions for sustainability transitions. Along Oslo's Climate strategy [18], the municipality has developed a procurement strategy, as they want to use public procurement as a powerful tool to accelerate the green shift, climate goals and circular economic thinking in accordance with ambitions of being an emission free city [19]. This requires procurement processes that strengthen the competitiveness of climate- and environmentally friendly solutions with a small environmental footprint, high expected quality, long service life and good recycling opportunities [20].