Leveraging AI for Sustainable Public Procurement: Opportunities and Challenges

Governments hold enormous purchasing power—yet too often, sustainability ambitions get stuck at the policy level and fail to translate into procurement practice. Why? Procurement teams face huge challenges: balancing cost, fairness, transparency, and sustainability while making complex purchasing decisions. This complexity hampers critical sustainability action.

• AI can help procurement officials interpret vast sustainability data and integrate it across the entire procurement lifecycle.
• It can transform how organizations prioritize environmental and social outcomes alongside cost.
• BUT TO SUCCEED, we need critical systems that are transparent, fair, and accountable—so that sustainability is advanced without undermining trust or competition.

"Procurement officials have a vital role in assisting organizations with achieving their sustainability goals," says Darnall. 

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