Purpose
The perspective to achieve sustainability at global level by 2030 is highly dependent on sustainable and green public procurement.
 

Methodology
The present paper focused on the public procurement at national level, applying Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC). A particular regard of the impact produced by food catering service at public level has been provided.
 

Findings
This study aimed to assess the environmental and costing impact of the food catering procurement integrating different analytical approaches.
 

Managerial implications
The combined use of the LCA and LCC approaches can help public administrations to know beforehand the impact generated for each single cost item and possibly act in the upstream phase to reduce cost and impacts generated by food catering procurement.
 

Research limitations
The limitations are due to the different national regulations adopted for the preparation of public contracts. Furthermore, the use of some secondary and tertiary data to assess the costs of the food catering partially affect the evaluation undertaken.
 

Originality
The authors proposed an innovative cost analysis approach, especially for the hidden costs, combining the LCA and LCC approaches in the food catering sector.