Apart from regulatory incentives, governments may lead by example. We focus on public-private partnerships as a tool to promote principles of sustainability through cooperation between the governments and private businesses. A concurrent part of our project deals with the usage of pro-environmental criteria in public procurement. However, not all projects can be implemented through standard procurement contracts. In particular, socially important projects that promote sustainability are often in areas where private businesses lack profitability incentives. We show that these are exactly the areas where governments may provide extra non-monetary incentives through close cooperation. The paper theoretically demonstrates where public-private partnerships outperform standard procurement contracts, and then gives examples of PPPs in waste management and road traffic management, from Russian Federation and United Kingdom, highlighting the "partnership element" which distinguishes PPPs from standard contracts, and emphasises the role of the government.