From Green to Sustainable Public Procurement: Applying Futures Literacy Lab for Co-creation in Latvia

Futures Literacy Labs (FLL), as developed by UNESCO, have become a widely replicated and methodologically robust framework for anticipatory governance, now applied across more than 60 countries and multiple domains - from education to innovation policy and sustainability science [1, 2]. Recent studies emphasise their potential for transforming entrenched policy paradigms, surfacing assumptions, and fostering systemic innovation [3, 4]. While the integration of FLL into Green and Sustainable Public Procurement remains underexplored, recent meta-reviews and conceptual analyses highlight strong synergies between participatory futures thinking and the complexity of procurement systems [5, 6, 7]. This paper offers one of the few empirical contributions in this space. The study applies FLL in the Latvian context during a co-creation workshop - "Sustainable Procurement Co-Creation: Dialogue. Ideas. Solutions." (Riga, June 16, 2025) - involving policymakers, NGOs, procurement professionals, business representatives, sustainability professionals and researchers. The event addressed the backdrop of ongoing policy discussions in Latvia regarding the potential removal of the mandatory status of Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria, raising strategic and normative concerns for future procurement pathways. Using the FLL stages - The Reveal, The Reframe, and The Rethink - participants engaged in structured exploration of barriers, imagined post-2030 procurement visions, and co-created feasible policy actions. Findings suggest FLL is effective in shifting procurement dialogues from compliance to long-term value creation, reinforcing stakeholder alignment and systemic reflexivity. This case validates FLL's transformative potential in policy design and adds new evidence to the emerging field linking anticipatory practices and sustainable procurement.