An evaluation of the implementation of green procurement Bakery Sector in Ireland Type: dissertation

            Green procurement the process of purchasing intended to eliminate waste and minimize harm to the environment and society,is deemed a suitable solution to business’ economic sustainability. Scholars have argued about the significance of integrating green procurement in a firm’s supply chain process as well to reduce the cost of operation and ensure quality or minimal standards are met (Bag, 2017; Smith, 2008). However, the sector and size of the firm influence to what extent green procurement is applied, for instance, large manufacturing or construction firms would want to engage in green procurement instantaneously due to the high extent of their operations and the impacts the may have on the environment and other stakeholders.

            This research explores the use of green procurement in the bread manufacturing sector in Ireland. While green procurement is considered appropriate practice for quality management, cost reduction and waste elimination, it is applied scarcely in Ireland. According to Gormly (2014), it is unclear to what extent green procurement is being practiced in Ireland; however, the public sector seems to be integrating green procurement more than the private sector. Gormly (2014) whose study investigates the application of green procurement among semi-state bodies in Ireland notes that the practice is not widely used due to lack of awareness and the absence of mandatory regulatory guidelines among others. Gormly’s finding about minimal application of green procurement in the private sector is corroborated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)(2014) of Ireland, which notes that green procurement in the public sector is undertaken in sectors such as construction, transport, energy, food and catering, textile, cleaning products, paper and IT equipment. While these sectors fall both in the public and private sectors, the application of green procurement is done within the public sector.  

Thus, this study is conducted in view of the idea that green procurement is relatively new and minimally practiced in Ireland’s private sectors.

            This study explores the use of green procurement in the bakery sector of Ireland, which is part of the private sector. Information about the sector reveals minimal to no application of green procurement, and hence, difficult to estimate with accuracy the impact of green procurement on the sector’s economic growth.  Despite the bakery sector in Ireland experiencing intense competition in recent years due to high competition from internal and external firms, the sector’s revenues has stabilized and increasing gradually as shown in Appendix A. In the years, 2011, 2012 and 2015, the bread manufacturers based In Ireland experienced declined revenues due to the following reasons:

Increased competition from imports.

Entry of new players – international firms – that have included bakery into their product portfolio.

Increased legislative directives meant to streamline the overall food sector production and supply.

Bakery sector over capacity.

Saturation due to an increase in small-scale bakery shops around the country.

Declining sector margins.

Inadequate business training in the bakery sector.

Minimal to no investment in product development.

            Coghlan (2015) notes that the decline in margins witnessed in 2015 among most bakery firms, an event that saw the Irish Pride Bakeries going bankrupt, has largely been attributed to challenging trading and cost pressures to the outcome. However, the bread manufacturing sector of Ireland has experienced a gradual but steady growth since 2016 and this is expected to continue until 2023 (Statista, 2019). Below is an overview of the brad manufacturing sector of Ireland based on the market, consumer needs and future expectations, which may be influenced by the application of green procurement practices.

Domestic market of an evaluation of the implementation of green procurement Bakery Sector in Ireland

            The sale of bread and baked goods were anticipated to grow by about 2.9% between 2017 and 2018 from €394 million to €405 million in the Republic of Ireland. The project sales growth between 2019 and 2023 is 8% , which will be €448 million (Borda Bia, 2019).  While about 29% of the population has not bought baked foods in a month as surveyed in January 2018, majority within the population of Ireland purchase baked goods, the most popular being scones, doughnuts, pastries and tea cakes as shown in Appendix B. Borda Bia (2019) pre-packaged bread is the most popular bread-type in Ireland and the value growth of the sector is due to improved availability and interest in speciality breads that are typically more expensive. The rate of inflation has also influenced the value growth of the bread sales as most bread manufacturers pass higher input and manufacturing cost to the consumers at the retail level (Keena, 2018). However, if the bread manufacturers try to reduce the waste an cost within the supply chin and operations, then the prices may decline a factor that may increase the demand for bread products.

Consumer needs of an evaluation of the implementation of green procurement Bakery Sector in Ireland

                The population in Ireland purchasing bread have various needs ranging from taste, health needs and improvement in the supply chain. According to Borda Bia (2019), about 78% of the consumers want a broader range of healthier breads, while 71% mention that they would want to know where and how the ingredients are sourced, indicating that the transparency across the supply chain will enable the consumers dismiss any concerns about environmental degradation an increase the trust about the manufacturing process. The need for healthier baked goods and transparent chain supply process indicate the high level of consumer awareness and how the application of green procurement may help increase consumer trust for the bread manufacturing sector of Ireland.  

The future of an evaluation of the implementation of green procurement Bakery Sector in Ireland

                Magan (2018) notes that the emerging themes for the bread manufacturing sector in Ireland in the next three years are going to be ‘new flavours’, ‘ingredients’ and ‘innovation’ with the latter anticipated to drive sustainable practices to decrease food wastage and plastic packaging that harms the environment through non-biodegradable plastics. The application of green procurement would help reduce the waste and ensure the use of recycled and sustainable packaging materials.

                The issue of supply chain keeps arising and it is worth noting that it is a core component of the manufacturing industry. Thus, it would be vital to investigate how the application of green procurement within the supply chain of bread manufacturers would help the sector attain consumer needs as well as meet the emerging themes of the future. According to Smith (2017), the most significant factors in creating more sustainable supply chains are recognized as the type of supply chain used and the business attitude to ensure responsible business practices and quality provision into the social and environmental performance within the firm’s supply chain. Within the context of the bread manufacturing sector, interpersonal trust among stakeholders such as suppliers and acceptable standards are necessary to create a more sustainable local supply chain, but insufficient to change mainstream raw-material supplies to the market (Coghlan, 2015). Baked goods typically contain ingredients from different origins or suppliers even though some may be obtained from a simple supply chain and others may entail transactions between wheat farmers, dairy and poultry farmers alongside other suppliers; hence, it is likely that the sum total of transactions involeved for baked goods is high (Smith, 2008).