Abstract:

Public procurement has the potential to influence the market in terms of sustainability. For this reason, public procurement in the construction industry is increasingly taking into account social and environmental criteria for awarding infrastructure projects. Universities should raise awareness among students promoting activities that foster sustainability. Therefore, this article proposes a methodology to study sustainable practices in public works procurement. Students assume a public role in order to select the key criteria to be included in the tender procedure. The aim of this research is to boost the awareness of students about the importance of the tender stage to achieve high levels of sustainability through the selection of the construction companies. Students choose the most important environmental and social criteria for a highway project. Besides, they propose an indicator and a metric for each criterion. This activity has been applied to graduate students of the Master of Planning and Management in Civil Engineer at the Universitat Politècnica de València. Students belong to more than 10 different countries of Europe and Central and South America. This active-learning method encourages future professionals to carry out sustainable practices in construction. In addition, this multicultural approach invites to share different points of view and sustainable practices from different countries.

Keywords:

Learning methodology, sustainable practices, multicultural approach, public procurement.