Sustainability in public organizations: a study in the Sustenta Paraná Network

Abstract

Purpose - Evaluate the actions aimed at sustainability in the public sector from their stages of maturity in the context of institutions participating in the Sustenta Paraná Network.

Methodology – We analyzed data collected through semi-structured interviews with managers responsible for creating and implementing sustainability projects in three public agencies participating in the Sustenta Paraná Network. Analyses also included information available on the official websites of the organizations, as well as documents from alignment meetings between institutions participating in the Rede Sustenta Paraná. The content analysis technique employed the software ATLAS.ti.

Findings - The organizations demonstrated similarities, such as that internal motivation comes from management and those responsible for sustainability. All the organizations presented the need for extensive work to raise employee awareness. Besides that, were confirmed that the changes of public sector makes suppliers need to adapt, demonstrating their influence on their chain and market. However, they also presented significant differences, and each organization is at a distinct stage in the model studied.

Originality - The contribution of this study is to expand and allow a better understanding of public organizations. Furthermore, two theoretical frameworks, typically used in the analysis of private organizations, were employed simultaneously. We suggest that public organizations systematize their sustainability information to make it available both to the internal and external public, such as an annual sustainability report with results achieved and ambitions.