# Green Public Procurement for Accelerating the Transition towards Sustainable Freight Transport
## 5 Discussion
Access to appropriate vehicles and corresponding fuelling/charging stations is crucial for succeeding with transitioning of the freight transport. In addition, our results highlight the importance of dialogue between the freight industry and municipalities for enhancing procurers' knowledge about new solutions and alternatives. At the same time, the procurers indicate that there is room for improvement when it comes to the freight service providers' knowledge of legislation and support schemes. Utilising the dialogue between procurers and the freight industry to provide suppliers with information about legislation and support schemes could be worth exploring. An active strategy is not merely important for municipalities. Setting strategies and aiming to achieve them requires generating requirements that both encourage and force freight service providers to develop solutions for meeting the requirements. Although the results here have shown that economic incentives are the most important parameter for freight service providers, findings from the in-depth interviews show that the freight service providers working for the public sector have the most ambitious goals for delivering low or zero emission solutions. This may not only be due to the orientation in the market affecting internal strategies, but also due to internal budgets and fleet sizes which reflect the capacity of the companies in terms of both financial and administration capacity. To become an early adopter freight service provider, they need financial resources, just as municipalities. Requirements for low or zero emission vehicles may therefore favour larger freight service providers already in possession of adequate vehicles. Investments on new technologies or dealing with the risks involved for ordering new vehicles are easier to face for larger freight providers. Thus, GPP could be combined with public support schemes to secure that both small and large municipalities and freight service providers can engage in the green shift. Public support schemes covering some of the extra expenses often associated with the introduction of new technologies are examples of strategic niche management, which has proved to be a useful tool in transition management based on both our study and previous findings [23; 26]. However, many small municipalities state that the funding from current public support schemes is scarce and that it often includes cumbersome application processes. So, to accelerate the transition, and reduce the bias for larger actors, easier application processes, and more financial support to cover for both risks and extra work would be beneficial. Otherwise, less competitions may contribute to a negative effect on price and quality when fewer bids are delivered, something freight service providers already have reported. Finally, proper methodologies for monitoring the compliance of requirements are needed to ensure fair competition. It is important from a competitive point of view that the winning freight service provider deliver what is promised. The development of standardised monitoring methodologies may facilitate the engagement of smaller enterprises and municipalities as it reduces the need for follow-up resources. Moreover, increased use of value-based inclusion of environmental requirements, as many municipalities already apply, can also be a measure to accelerate more sustainable transport solutions associated with the larger purchases of goods and services. The results presented in this paper confide to a Norwegian context, which is characterised by a large public sector, and therefore might not be transferable to other contexts without modification. However, this study sheds light on how municipalities and freight providers perceive GPP, and the success factors related to it. The results reveal that despite highlighting the topic by National legislation, local willingness is essential to effectively include GPP in public procurement.