Abstract
In public procurement, the state enters into a market economy relationship with private-sector suppliers. Due to the enormous volume of goods and services demanded, public procurement can provide impetus for transformation both externally with suppliers and internally for public administration. The EU and Germany have enshrined sustainability criteria in their public procurement law. This article shows that empirical studies indicate a large discrepancy between the possibility and implementation of sustainable procurement. Effective implementation of sustainable procurement requires not only regulatory law (bureaucratic logic) but also the strategic anchoring of sustainability principles in the management and processes of public procurement and in supplier management (managerial logic).