SUSTAINABILITY CRITERIA AND PRACTICES IN ELECTRO-ELECTRONIC PURCHASES BY IFECT IN THE NORTHERN BRAZIL REGION

Objective: this study aims to verify the adoption of sustainable rating criteria and practices in the acquisitions of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) from the Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology (IFECT) in the north of Brazil. Theoretical Reference: The work is based on sustainable public acquisitions as an inducer of sustainable development, through the adoption of sustainability rating criteria and practices in acquisitions of public institutions. Method: This research was characterized as exploratory and has used a qualitative approach, to verify the adoption of rating criteria and sustainable practices in the acquisition of EEE from the IFECT, through a documental analysis in the documents of the planning phase of the acquisitions. Results and conclusion: data analysis revealed that the adoption of sustainability rating criteria and practices in IFECTs EEEs acquisitions is still very unsatisfactory. However, it showed a slight improvement between 2018 and 2021 and demonstrated that some IFECTs have more consolidated hiring plans. However, the need for improvements in all IFECTs, especially IFAM and IFPA. Implication of the research: the research makes explicit, through its results, the need to identify the factors that hinder the adoption of sustainability rating criteria and practices in public procurement, as well as the need for advances in this field. Originality/value:


INTRODUCTION
Sustainability, over the last few decades, has become important on the global stage.Environmental degradation, climate change, social and economic inequalities, the irrational use of natural resources and the increase in waste generation draw attention to the need for change in the way human beings relate to the environment and with their peers ( BRAMMER andWALKER, 2011, LAKATOS et al., 2018 ).
Organizations, public and private, constitute some of the main actors in this new scenario, especially because they are directly linked and contribute significantly to environmental changes.For a long time, supply management in organizations contributed negatively to relations with the environment.However, this relationship has evolved with the aim of contributing positively to sustainable development ( OLIVEIRA et al . 2016;GREJO and LUNKES, 2022).
Studies on sustainability in the processes of acquiring goods and services in the private sector have a long history, with countless published works that address different aspects, such as benefits in adopting sustainable practices, improving business performance, measuring sustainable acquisitions and others.(RETAMAL, 2017).
On the other hand, research focused on the public sector has gained more space in the last two decades (DELMONICO et al ., 2018).However, sustainable purchasing in public administration still presents many gaps and requires more in-depth and specific studies on certain areas, sectors and regions that would enable the advancement of the theme "sustainable public purchasing" (BRAMMER and WALKER, 2011;DELMONICO et al . , 2018).
In addition to this, it is observed that the public sector represents one of the greatest market demands in all countries, being a large consumer of products and services.In Brazil, for example, in 2018 alone, federal public institutions were responsible for moving more than 47 billion reais in their tenders (FERRAZ, 2020).
It is worth noting that the amount spent on the acquisition of materials by the public administration in Brazil is very high and, as in the private sphere and in family consumption, a significant portion of these resources are used to acquire electrical and electronic equipment (MENDES, 2018).Data from the federal government's price panel indicate that three EEE (computer, notebook and air conditioning) generated more than 1.9 billion reais in tenders held in 2022 (BRASIL, 2023).
Among the various public entities, educational institutions allow for a rich analysis on the topic, as in addition to being responsible for a significant portion of public spending, especially with the constant acquisition of EEE, for the renewal of their infrastructure and to always be in compliance with need for academic, social and marketing training, they generate knowledge and serve a large portion of the population (MACHADO et al. , 2013).
Given these observations and notes, the present study seeks to provide an overview of the adoption of sustainability criteria and practices in the processes of acquiring electronic equipment in public educational institutions in the northern region of Brazil.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Public procurement can be defined as the acquisition of goods and services carried out by the government or public sector organizations.It is an important tool, as it is through it that governments maintain and improve their structures in search of better provision of services to the population (BRAMMER and WALKER, 2011).
According to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), public purchases represent between 8 and 25 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of its member countries.While in Brazil, public purchases represent 10 to 15 percent of national GDP (MPOG, 2018;OECD, 2022).These data highlight the importance of public purchases, as the State, in addition to being one of the largest consumers, can act as an inducer of changes in the socioeconomic and environmental scenario.
In view of this, the role of governments as agents of change has been explored, because, taking into account their consumption levels, the actions taken by public authorities have a direct impact on economic sectors and can guide suppliers and buyers in directions desired by the State or society. .Furthermore, among the various aspects of the state's activities, sustainability is undoubtedly one of those that has gained the most visibility and prominence around the world in recent times (SCHREIBER andFEIL, 2017, LAKATOS et al ., 2018).
In Brazil, over the last few decades, public administration has advanced towards a sustainable agenda.With this in mind, several actions were taken with the aim of improving government action on issues related to sustainable development and the adoption of sustainable practices (OLIVEIRA, 2020).The 1988 federal constitution itself brings with it sustainable actions, especially regarding economic development, through environmental preservation and the search for social equity.
It is important to highlight that several regulations were published by the Brazilian government in the search for a sustainable agenda, such as, for example, Law nº 6,938/1981 which provides for national environmental policy, Law nº 12,651/2012 which provides for plant protection native (new Brazilian forest code), Law No. 12,305/2010 that establishes the national solid waste policy, among others (CARDOSO, 2013).
In addition to its regulatory role, the government has worked on actions to promote sustainable development in its bodies, an example of these actions is the Public Administration Environmental Agenda (A3P), in which the government seeks to promote and encourage the adoption and implementation of socio-environmental responsibility actions (OLIVEIRA, 2020).This search for a more sustainable state is also reflected in the processes of acquisition of goods and services by governments, acquiring significant prominence in the international political scenario (RETAMAL, 2017).
In this context, sustainable purchasing constitutes the process in which public organizations meet their needs, whether for goods, services or works, observing the generation of benefits, not only for the organization, but for society as a whole.Covering concerns about environmental, social and economic aspects, thus including sustainability criteria in the acquisition process (DEFRA, 2006;STRITC et al. , 2020).
In light of this, Brazil, following this trend and giving importance to sustainable national development, incorporated aspects related to social, economic and environmental public policies into the legal framework that governs tenders and contracts in Brazilian public administration (OLIVEIRA, 2020).
However, this advance in Law No. 8,666/1993 (bidding law) was only incorporated directly from Law No. 12,349/2010, which included the promotion of sustainable national development in the Bidding Law, as well as from the Normative Instruction SLTI/MPOG nº 01/2010 which regulated the environmental sustainability criteria in the acquisition of goods, services or works within the scope of the Brazilian federal public administration (FERRAZ, 2020).More recently, the new bidding law, Law No. 14,133/2021, made the topic of sustainability in public sector acquisitions even more explicit.Including aspects of reverse logistics for dismantling and recycling goods and waste, when applicable under the terms of the national solid waste policy.
It should be noted that, among the countless types of materials acquired by the public administration, electronic equipment is one of the most notable, not only due to the amounts spent on its acquisition, but also due to the possible environmental impacts arising from this type of product. .
In general, electronic equipment is products that depend on the use of electric current or magnetic fields for their operation.In Brazil, following the parameters of the Brazilian Industrial Development Agency (2012), they are divided into four categories: • White goods: refrigerators, stoves, washers and air conditioners; • Brown line: audio and video equipment, such as televisions, monitors, DVD and Blu-ray players , camcorders; • Blue line: mixers, drills, dryers, blenders, vacuum cleaners, coffee makers; • Green line: IT and telecommunications equipment, such as computers, notebooks, peripherals, tablets and smartphones.In this way, the importance given to electronics occurs because this equipment contains elements in its constitution that can be extremely harmful to the environment and human health (ALVES et al ., 2021).It is also noteworthy that the waste from these equipment is the fastest growing in the world.According to the UN's Global E-Waste Monitor 2020 report, in 2019 alone the generation of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) reached the mark of 53.6 million metric tons worldwide, which represented an increase of more than 20% in relation to the volume presented in 2014.Furthermore, the report also predicts that, continuing at the current rate, this volume should reach 74 million metric tons by 2030 (FORTI et al., 2020).
Furthermore, among emerging countries, Brazil is the one that generates the most waste from electrical and electronic equipment, according to the report " recyclingfrom e-waste I'm resources " of the United Nations Environment Program (PIRES and OLIVEIRA, 2021).
Another factor that highlights electronic equipment is its economic and social impact.According to data from IBGE (2016), it is estimated that more than 120 million pieces of electronic equipment are purchased every year in Brazil, the value generated by trade in this type of product is very large in the country, as well as throughout the world (MENDES , 2018).
Within the scope of Brazilian public administration, the amount spent on this type of equipment is also significant, to get an idea of its size, data from the federal government's price panel indicate that in 2022 three electronic equipment, these being computers, notebooks and central offices air conditioning.They were responsible for moving more than 1 billion and 900 million reais in bids, with the three appearing among the top 20 materials, considering the values bid (BRASIL, 2023).
Given the importance of public purchases in Brazil, considering that they represent around 10 percent of the national GDP, as well as the paradigm shift in the global scenario regarding the importance of sustainability and the role of the State as an agent inducing change, towards To achieve a more sustainable society, it is necessary that studies can address these topics in order to bring light to the discussion and assist in this process.These notes, aligned with the impact caused by electronic equipment on the economy, social objectives and the environment, justify seeking to respond to the gap in the literature on the adoption of sustainability practices and criteria in public procurement (ARAGÃO and JABBOUR, 2017) .

METHODOLOGY
This article is the result of descriptive research with a qualitative approach, as it seeks to describe the current situation of sustainability criteria and practices in public procurement, through a qualitative analysis of documents from the planning phase of public procurement.(CRESWELL, 2010).To this end, the procedure used in the present study is a documentary analysis, carried out through the analysis of secondary data obtained in documents from the planning phase of the tenders of the seven Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology in the northern region of Brazil, covering the documents of the auctions held from 2018 to 2021 (SÁ-SILVA et al. , 2009).
The first stage consisted of identifying all the General Services Administrative Units (UASG) of the IFECT in the northern region, which subsequently made it possible to search for tenders, in the electronic auction modality, carried out by these UASGs and the documents of each of them .The UASG code was obtained from the portal http://comprasnet.gov.br/livre/uasg/index.htm using the Federation Unit (UF) as a search parameter, the abbreviation " inst " (institute), IF (acronym usual Federal Institute) or the name of the state.
The second stage corresponded to the search for auctions held by IFECT.For this, the numbers of all UASGs of each FI, identified in the previous step, were used .The survey was carried out on the website http://comprasnet.gov.br/livre/pregao/ata0.aspusing only the UASG number in the purchase unit field.
The search was carried out using only the "purchase unit" field, because, when carrying out the search with this filter, the results showed the history of all auctions held by UASG, making it possible to cut out time.With this, it was possible to notice that only 52 units of the 7 IFECTs in the northern region (the IFECT together total 79 units) held auctions in 2018 and 2021, with a total of 1,246 auctions held in this period.
A third moment consisted of reading the minutes of the auction to reveal the EEE auctions held by the institutions.In this third stage, two points in the minutes were analyzed, namely the object of the bidding and the description of the items.Verifying the object of the bidding made it possible to find the auctions aimed at purchasing materials/equipment, allowing the discard of auctions related to the contracting of services and works.Furthermore, the description of the object, together with the analysis of the auction items, made it possible to objectively define whether the auctions were for electronics.
Therefore, EEE auctions were those in which the description of the object specifically refers to products from one of the four lines of electronic equipment, for example: acquisition of televisions; computers; air conditioning and other products from the green, blue, white and/or brown lines.Furthermore, auctions that did not have a specific object description for electronics were also counted, for example: acquisition of furniture; acquisition of laboratory equipment; purchase of kitchen equipment.However, for them to be analyzed they needed to have at least 6 30% of the auction items equivalent to electronic equipment.Therefore, of the 1,246 tenders, in the electronic auction modality, carried out by IFECT from 2018 to 2021 and analyzed in the third stage, a total of 183 corresponded to auctions for the acquisition of EEE.
The fourth and final stage consisted of analyzing the documents from the planning phase of the 183 electronic equipment auctions held by IFECT and classifying them based on the adoption of sustainability criteria and practices, according to the guidelines set out in Normative Instruction SLTI/MPOG nº 01 , of January 19, 2010 and in the National Guide for Sustainable Bidding of the Attorney General's Office.To this end, the preliminary technical studies (ETP), the terms of reference (TR) and the notices of the 183 auctions were analyzed.The classification of auctions was defined in 4 levels, as shown in table 1: Based on the definition of the four levels and after a detailed analysis of the documents from the contracting planning phase, each of the 183 IFECT electronic equipment auctions was classified.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The object of analysis of this study are the tenders, in the electronic auction modality, carried out by the federal institutes of education, science and technology (IFECT) in the northern region in the period from 2018 to 2021.Currently, each state in the northern region has a federal institute , totaling seven IFECT.Table 2 presents the identification of IFECTs in the northern region.That said, it can be seen that each state in the northern region has only one FI divided into several units (campuses), different from what occurs in other units of the federation that have more than one FI, as is the case, for example: Bahia , which has the IF Baiano and the IF da Bahia; of Minas Gerais, which has the IF of Minas Gerais, the IF Norte de Minas, the IF Sudeste de Minas, IF Sul de Minas and IF Triângulo Mineiro; between others.It is worth noting that in the states of the northern region, as well as in other regions and units of the federation, the size and number of units of a Federal Institute are related to the size of the State.
Continuing, as seen in table 2, it is noted that in the northern region the states of Pará and Amazonas are, respectively, the largest IFECT, having: the largest number of units; greater number of servers; largest budget and among those with the largest number of students.Next, there is the Federal Institute of Tocantins and the Federal Institute of Rondônia, therefore, it is also possible to note that these last two IFECT have a number of students close to or greater than IFPA and IFAM, this is due to the number of students coming from education at distance offered by these two IFECT (MEC, 2023).Lastly, IFAC, IFAP and IFRR are the smallest institutes in the region.
In relation to the auctions held by IFECT from 2018 to 2021, graph 1 shows the percentage of participation of each IF in the total of 1,246 auctions held.It is noted that the percentage of IFECT participation in total auctions (graph 1) is related to the size of the IF (table 2).Consequently, it is possible to verify that IFRR, IFAC and IFAP, in addition to being the smallest IFECT in the region, are also those that held the fewest auctions.Likewise, the IFTO, which is a medium-sized Institute, in relation to the IFECT in the region and also appears in an intermediate position in terms of auctions.Still in this context, IFAM and IFPA, which are the largest IFECT in the region, are also among those that run the most auctions.
However, the highlight is IFRO, which despite being practically half the size of IFPA and IFAM, held more auctions than them in the period researched.This number of auctions carried out, in relation to the others, may indicate better planning for the institution's hiring, the allocation of qualified and qualified labor to carry out the auctions, a consolidated purchasing process and low use of direct hiring.
It is also important to highlight that IFPA, IFAM and IFRO together account for approximately 65% of all auctions held by IFECT in the northern region in the period from 2018 to 2021.Graph 2 shows the evolution of auctions held by IFECT over 4 years.It is possible to detect that IFRR, IFRO and IFAC maintained a stable pattern in the number of trading sessions with subtle upward or downward fluctuations.This average standard may indicate better hiring planning in these institutions, as these subtle fluctuations are normal in institutions and may indicate: some specific need; new demand; the exclusion of a need that has already been met or is no longer necessary.
On the other hand, the Federal Institutes of Tocantins and Amazonas showed a relevant pattern of growth, with IFTO going from 23 trading sessions in 2018 to 41 in 2021 and IFAM going from 32 trading sessions in 2018 to 57 in 2021, both presenting a growth at the end of the period of approx.80%, with emphasis also on the variation perceived in IFAM, which reached a peak of 86 trading sessions in 2020.Meanwhile, IFAP and IFPA showed a downward trend, going from 43 and 105 trading sessions in 2018 to 15 and 37 in 2021, respectively.Therefore, both IFECTs showed a drop of approx.65% when comparing the beginning and end of the series.However, one thing that draws attention is the large fluctuation, year to year, in the auctions held by IFPA and IFAM.This oscillation may indicate a lack of planning for hiring at these institutions, considering that these declines and growths do not match any pattern recorded in relation to other IFECTs and that, even due to the expansion process, the inclusion or exclusion of new demands does not would justify the values presented.Table 4 presents in detail the total number of auctions for electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) held by IFECT in the northern region in the period from 2018 to 2021 and the values recorded in these auctions.The total of 183 EEE auctions (table 4) corresponds to 14.68% of all 1,246 auctions held by IFECT (table 3), in addition, a total of R$ 144,811,572.00was recorded in the minutes of these auctions.
Graph 3 -Total evolution of trading sessions x EEE trading sessions Source: prepared by the authors (2023).
As is clear, graph 3 shows the total evolution of auctions in relation to the total number of auctions for electronic equipment (EEE).By comparing the lines, it is possible to verify that both follow a slight downward trend, except in 2020, which showed an increase of more than 50% in relation to previous years, based on the survey carried out in the trading sessions, it is possible to verify that This increase was mainly due to the acquisition of green line equipment, such as computers, tablets, cell phones and others.
The analysis of EEE auctions shows that two factors may have contributed to the increase in EEE auctions in 2020, the first being the acquisition of tablets and computers for Graph 4 shows the percentage of electronic equipment auctions held by each FI in relation to the total number of EEE auctions held between 2018 and 2021.Unlike graph 2, which showed a greater gap between the total auctions held by IFECT, graph 4 shows that the total number of auctions showed a smaller variation between institutions.It stands out that IFRO presented a better performance in terms of the execution of auctions, considering that it was the institute that held the most EEE auctions in the 4 years, even ahead of IFAM and IFPA, the two largest IFECT in the northern region.Another IF that stood out was IFAC, which held auctions in a way that was very close to the totals carried out by IFAM and IFPA.
Entering specifically into the field of EEE auctions and their classifications, according to the adoption of sustainability criteria and practices: graph 5, based on an analysis of documents from the planning phase of EEE auctions, shows that the adoption of sustainability criteria and practices Sustainability was considered bad or non-existent in 76% of EEE auctions held from 2018 to 2021, with the adoption of criteria and practices being considered nonexistent in 32% and considered bad in 44%.In other words, it only mentions legal regulations on sustainability, in a generic way and without considering the characteristics of the object of the contract.Furthermore, it is possible to verify that graph 5 shows only 6% of EEE auctions classified as excellent and 18% classified as good.These data demonstrate the need for improvement in the promotion of sustainability criteria and practices in public contracts, as well as gaining more relevance because they are contracts aimed at acquiring electrical and electronic equipment, which are responsible for generating waste that is harmful to the environment and human beings.human (FRANCO and LANGE, 2011).Still on graph 5, it is understood that it corroborates the idea of the need for evolution in the adoption of sustainable criteria and practices in EEE hiring, since, as demonstrated, less than a quarter of these hirings were classified as good or excellent.which makes it difficult to acquire more sustainable products, considering that the planning of these contracts fails to define sustainable criteria and practices for the acquisition of EEE.
Graph 6 -Evolution of EEE contracting, according to the level of adoption of sustainability criteria and practices Source: prepared by the authors (2023) Graph 6 shows the evolution of IFECT EEE contracting in the northern region, between 2018 and 2021, according to the level of adoption of sustainability criteria and practices.It is interesting to note that in 2018, auctions classified as non-existent and bad corresponded to more than 80% of all EEE contracts, with the majority of them being represented by contracts whose criteria and practices did not exist.While in 2019, there was a reduction in the number of contracts with non-existent classification, with a similar percentage being maintained in 2020.At the same time, in 2019, there was a small increase in auctions classified as bad and good .
In this sense, the hires classified as excellent evolved from 2019 onwards, not having such a large increase numerically, but now representing a higher percentage in relation to the total of other classifications, jumping from just under 5% in 2018 to more of 10% in 2021.This growth also occurred with hiring classified as good and bad.Good hires jumped from just under 15% in 2018 to just over 25% in 2021.
Meanwhile, hiring classified as bad, regarding the adoption of sustainability criteria and practices, jumped from just over 35% in 2018 to approximately 50% in 2021.This data, initially, may seem negative, but this increase occurred mainly due to the drastic reduction in hiring in which the criteria and practices were non-existent, with these hiring having a reduction of approx.30% between 2018 and 2021.This last data points to the transfer of this percentage to the other classification levels (increase of approximately 5% in excellent, 10% good and 15% bad hires), which indicates an improvement in the adoption of practices and sustainability criteria in EEE contracting for IFECT in the northern region.
That said, table 5 presents the numbers, and the respective percentages, of EEE auctions held by each FI in the northern region in relation to the total number of auctions held by all IFECTs in the region according to their classification following the adoption of sustainability practices and criteria in documents in the hiring planning phase.Thus, the first data that draws attention in table 5 is related to the contracts classified as excellent, because it is possible to observe that in a universe of 183 EEE auctions, only 10, just over 5% of the total, are classified as excellent regarding the adoption of sustainable criteria and practices in the hiring planning phase.Furthermore, of the seven institutes in the northern region, two of them, IFAC and IFPA, did not have any auction classified as excellent.However, the data that draws the most attention comes from IFRO, which alone accounts for more than 50% of EEE auctions classified as excellent.
Therefore, the data presented above becomes even more relevant when one observes that the Federal Institute of Rondônia also has the highest percentage of auctions classified as good (24.2%) in the northern region.This may indicate that sustainability criteria and practices are well consolidated in the institution.Furthermore, as shown in tables 3 and 4, IFRO was the federal institute in the northern region that held the most EEE auctions between 2018 and 2021, which indicates good hiring planning and well-structured processes.
On the other hand, as can be seen in table 5, IFAM and IFPA have unsatisfactory performances in terms of classifications of excellent and good auctions, mainly considering the fact that they are the two largest IFECT in the northern region.Out of a total of 43 EEE trading sessions, classified as excellent and good, IFAM and IFPA together have only 9 trading sessions in these classifications, 4 from IFAM and 5 from IFPA.This value corresponds to just over 20% of the total, a very low value for the two largest institutions in the region.
Still analyzing table 5, what draws attention is the number of IFAC auctions classified as bad, since alone it accounts for more than 30% of all auctions with a bad classification.Furthermore, IFAC has the lowest percentage of auctions with good and excellent ratings in the region.
Finally, in relation to table 5, IFAM and IFPA present worrying numbers in relation to the classification of auctions where the adoption of sustainability criteria and practices is nonexistent.The two together account for almost 70% of auctions with this classification.These numbers prove to be even worse, as in addition to being the two largest IFECTs in the region, they are also the second and third ones that hold the most EEE auctions.
Given this, the lack of sustainability criteria and practices may indicate a lack of planning for hiring these IFECTs and a poorly consolidated structure regarding concerns about sustainability in hiring.Below, table 6 presents the numbers, and the respective percentages, of the EEE auctions held by each FI in the northern region according to their classification based on the adoption or not of sustainability practices and criteria in the planning phase documents of hiring.Initially, it is noted that IFRR and IFRO are, respectively, the institutes in the northern region that have the highest percentage of their auctions classified as excellent.Likewise, these, together with IFAP and IFTO, are those with the highest percentages of their hiring classified as good, with 29.4% from IFAP, 27.3% from IFTO, 21.4% from IFRR and 19% from IFRO.Furthermore, these four IFECTs account for more than 30% of the total bids classified as good and excellent.
However, in table 5, IFAP, IFRR and IFTO appeared more discreetly, as the total number of EEE auctions of these institutions is much smaller than, for example, that of IFRO.This can be seen when considering that IFTO (22) held just over half of the total number of auctions held by IFRO (44), as well as IFRR ( 14) and IFAP ( 17) held approximately a third of the total number of auctions held by EEA in relation to IFRO.
However, even with a smaller number of EEE auctions, Institutos de Roraima and Tocantins still appear, respectively, as the second with the highest percentage of auctions classified as excellent and good considering all the contracts carried out by IFECT in the region, as shown in table 5.These Data is important, as it demonstrates that these four institutes, IFRO, IFTO, IFAP and IFRR, are already hiring with greater concern regarding sustainability.
On the other hand, some institutes present poor data compared to other IFECTs in the region.Since out of 28 EEE auctions carried out by IFAC, 25, or almost 90%, were classified as poor in terms of the adoption of sustainability criteria in contracting, demonstrating that, in general, the documents prepared in the planning phase of contracting by this institute only they followed the agencies' reference models without effectively considering the intended purpose of the acquisition.
However, IFAM and IFPA present even worse data.This is because of the 29 EEE auctions held by IFAM, 23 of them, almost 80%, were classified as non-existent in terms of the adoption of sustainability practices.However, out of 31 auctions held by IFPA, a total of 17 obtained a non-existent classification.These data demonstrate an even worse situation in these two IFECTs, as they show that even the sustainability practices and criteria set out in the reference documents made available by the AGU were excluded from the planning phase documents of these auctions.
Still in this context, IFAC, IFAM and IFPA are the only IFECT in the region that have more than 80% of their EEE auctions classified as poor or non-existent.This demonstrates the urgent need to improve the preparation of documents that make up the planning phase of these contracts, as it can impact the acquisition of equipment with a lower degree of economic, social and environmental sustainability.

CONCLUSION
The main objective of the research was to identify the adoption of sustainability criteria and practices in contracting electrical and electronic equipment at federal education, science and technology institutes in the northern region of Brazil.The research was carried out through analysis of secondary data obtained from documents from the planning phase of EEE hiring at the seven federal institutes in the northern region carried out between 2018 and 2021.
It was found that the IFECT in the northern region carried out, between 2018 and 2021, a total of 1,246 tenders, in the electronic auction modality and that 183 (14.6%) of them were for the acquisition of electrical and electronic equipment.In relation to the total number of auctions, it was found that IFRR, IFRO and IFAC had small fluctuations over the years, possibly indicating good contracting planning with small inclusions or exclusions of demands.
Secondly, it is noted that IFAP and IFTO showed decreasing and increasing trends, respectively, with small fluctuations annually.However, IFAM and IFPA have shown large fluctuations over the years that apparently have no justification and need to be investigated further, but which may indicate poor hiring/acquisitions planning by these institutions.
Regarding the general total of auctions and the total number of EEE auctions, it is worth highlighting the Federal Institute of Rondônia, which, despite being almost half the size of the Federal Institutes of Amazonas and Pará, was responsible for the largest number of auctions and sales sessions.EEE carried out by IFECT in the northern region from 2018 to 2021.Furthermore, it was one of the institutes with the lowest fluctuation in the total number of auctions held over the years, thus indicating good hiring planning and the option of using the auction to the detriment of direct hires Regarding the classification of auctions, the research demonstrated that there was a considerable reduction in the number of EEE auctions classified with poor or non-existent sustainability practices, reducing from just over 80% in 2018 to just over 60% in 2021, but the data What deserves even more attention is the reduction in auctions classified as non-existent, which reduced from approximately 65% to less than 15%.Conversely to this, the percentage of auctions classified as good and excellent grew, going from approximately 20% to almost 40%, both of which practically doubled in volume from 2018 to 2021.
While, in relation to IFECT, the Federal Institute of Rondônia was the one that presented the best data in relation to auctions classified as good, followed by IFTO, and excellent, followed by IFRR, these IFECT were also some of those that fluctuated least in the amount of tenders carried out, indicating better planning of these contracts and mastery of the topic.
In another perspective, IFAC, IFAM and IFPA presented the worst classifications, with IFAC being the IF that had the highest percentages of auctions classified as bad, while IFAM and IFPA had, respectively, the highest percentages of auctions classified as bad. the adoption of non-existent sustainability criteria and practices.Thus, in addition to indicating a certain weakness in contracting planning, it highlights the likely need for training employees, as well as reinforcing the importance of sustainability criteria in public contracting.
In order to contribute to the topic, future research can analyze the factors that impact the adoption of sustainability criteria and practices in the preparatory documents for IFECT EEE contracts, just as the research can be expanded to IFECT in other regions to carry out a comparison between regions and between IFECTs with similar sizes.Finally, analyzes can be carried out based on other time frames in order to allow analyzing the evolution of the adoption of criteria and practices based on the introduction of new legal regulations and the updating of others.
The study also demonstrated that the IFECT in the northern region began to adopt more and better practices and sustainability criteria in the planning phase documents of their contracts, almost doubling from 2018 to 2021 the percentage of auctions classified as excellent and good, but in a still slow and insufficient, especially because the auctions, classified as good or excellent, did not reach even 40% of the total EEA auctions.However, it was possible to verify that some institutes, such as IFRO, have good planning and structuring of their contracts that allow the adoption of best practices and sustainability criteria.
Finally, in general, IFECT in the northern region still adopts sustainability criteria and practices in their hiring in a poor and unsatisfactory manner, which demonstrates the need for improvement in this field.However, it was also possible to see small advances over the last few years.

Graph 1 -
Percentage of auctions held by each FI in the northern region from 2018 to 2021 Source : prepared by the authors (2023).

Graph 2 -
Evolution of FI trading sessions from 2018 to 2021 Source : prepared by the authors (2023).
Practices in Electro-Electronic Purchases by Ifect In the Northern Brazil Region ___________________________________________________________________________ Rev. Gest.Soc.Ambient.| Miami | v.18.n.2 | p.1-17 | e04991 | 2024.10 use by students during the pandemic period, due to remote activities, and the second refers to the acquisition to improve the institutions' technological infrastructure due to the return to faceto-face activities at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 in most educational institutions in Brazil.Graph 4 -Percentage of EEE auctions held by IFECT in the northern region from 2018 to 2021 Source: prepared by the authors (2023).

Table 1 -
Classification levels of EEE auctions 1 -Inclusion and appropriate use of legal regulations that provide for sustainability, in accordance with the equipment specifications; 2 -Objective definition of possible environmental impacts and mitigating measures to reduce impacts; 3 -Low consumption requirements, lower production impact, use of recyclable materials and products with a longer life cycle; 4 -Acquisition of local production equipment or local micro and small companies; 5 -Request to present declarations or certifications relating to sustainability; 6 -Specification of the sustainability criterion(s) in the specification of each auction item, when applicable; 7 -Establishment of reverse logistics for products, when required by legal regulations.twoGoodAdoption of one to three sustainability criteria and/or practices, as described in level 1.3 BadIt mentions legal regulations on sustainability, but in a generic way and without considering the characteristics of the object being tendered.Does not make adjustments to the model documents made available by AGU.4 NonexistentNone of the contracting documents (ETP, TR and notice) establish sustainability criteria for the acquisition of equipment, in addition to excluding the sustainability regulations contained in the model documents made available from the AGU.Source: prepared by the authors (2023).

Table 2 -
IFECT identification of the northern region

State Name IF acrony m Total Units Active Servers (Dec/2022) Budget 2022 (in millions R$) Total students in progress (2021)
Source : Prepared by the authors based on MEC (2023).

Table 3 -
Auctions held by IFECT in the northern region from 2018 to 2021

Table 3
presents in detail the total number of auctions held by IFECT in the northern region in the period from 2018 to 2021.Over these years, IFECT held a total of 1,246 auctions for the acquisition of materials/goods, contracting of services and construction works.engineering.It is observed that the number of auctions decreased annually, starting 2018 with a total of 333 and ending 2021 with 270 auctions held.

Table 4 -
IFECT EEE auctions in the northern region from 2018 to 2021 and values recorded in acquisitions Source: prepared by the authors (2023).
Graph 5 -Classification of IFECT EEE tenders from 2018 to 2021, according to sustainability criteria.Source: prepared by the authors (2023).

Table 5 -
Percentage of EEE contracting by each FI in relation to the total in the northern region according to the adoption of sustainability criteria

Table 6 -
Percentage of EEE hiring by FI according to the adoption of sustainability criteria Sustainability Criteria and Practices in Electro-Electronic Purchases by Ifect In the Northern Brazil Region ___________________________________________________________________________ Rev. Gest.Soc.Ambient.| Miami | v.18.n.2 | p.1-17 | e04991 | 2024.