Green procurement in Kenyan hospitals : exploring the awareness and opportunities for Kenyan hospitals to implement green procurement

Abstract

The significance of having a positive environmental impact has rapidly been growing. More and more industries are beginning to identify and implement the ways in which they can be environmentally friendly. One such way is green procurement. In many developed countries where green public procurement is at the fore-front of procurement activities, many industries have implemented it, including the healthcare industry. In Kenya, a developing country in East Africa, sustainability is a well-known concept, with the country striving to achieve its Millennium Development Goals (of which certain goals on sustainability are included) by 2015. However, green procurement is not as widely developed as it could be.

The focus of this thesis is on green procurement in Kenyan Hospitals. The thesis aims to reveal the level of awareness of green procurement in the hospitals, the extent to which they may have implemented green procurement, as well as the opportunities that these hospitals have for implementing green procurement.

After the research, only one hospital was revealed to use environmental criteria for most if not all its procurement processes. This hospital was a private for-profit hospital. In the other hospitals interviewed (a public hospital and a faith-based hospital), use of environmental criteria was not a priority. One of the reasons for this was lack of awareness. Another reason was lack of policies and other mandates from the government. Many felt that the hospitals (in particular the public one) are most likely to implement green procurement should the government be involved and include it in the form of a law.

Overall, the basic concepts of green procurement were known and the hospital representatives interviewed understood the significance of implementing it. Also, the hospitals do have the opportunities to implement green procurement, as the research did not discover any major hindrances impeding them.