How procurement can accelerate the shift to a circular economy

A circular economy future requires a complete shift in both what we buy and the way we buy; it requires circular procurement. Procurement will need to go beyond purchasing quality goods and services at low cost: these goods and services must also avoid social and environmental harms. One way of thinking that could guide this shift in practice is the circular procurement ‘hierarchy’, with four phases: reduce, reuse, recycle and recover. Read more: link.

Denmark: Public procurement as a circular economy enabler

Public procurement refers to the process by which public authorities purchase goods and services from companies. The impact of public procurement on the transition to a circular economy could be significant. In the European Union, public procurement is worth around EUR 2 trillion and around 19% of GDP. The integration of holistic procurement requirements can increase demand for circular products and services, drive innovation, minimise environmental degradation and save public money, as the costs of the product’s entire life cycle will be considered. Read more: link.

Public procurement for a circular economy | Good practice and guidance

Circular public procurement is a process by which public authorities purchase works, good, or services that seek to contribute to closed energy and material loops within supply chains, whilst minimizing, and in the best case avoiding negative environmental impacts and waste creation across their whole life cycle. Within the current linear production and consumption economic model, only a small share of waste produced is reused, recycled, or traded as secondary materials. Considering finite resource flows, economies will no longer be able to rely on these linear production and consumption models. Integrating circular economy into public procurement aims to recover raw material after the lifetime of products for their next use. Read more: link.

Green public procurement | A guide for NGOs

Green public procurement (GPP) denotes purchasing goods and services that have a reduced impact on the environment compared to the usual alternatives. Despite its potential, many public procurers do not engage in GPP because of overly rigid institutional structures, a lack of staff capacity, and a lack of knowledge. However, NGOs can encourage public procurers to embrace GPP to lower carbon emissions, reduce resource use, and speed up the transition to clean energy and spur innovation in the private sector and set Europe firmly on a track towards a circular economy. Read more: link.

Empowering the circular economy through procurement

In practice, most sustainable procurement exercises are based on the purchase of goods and services through a linear approach, meaning repair, re-use, refurbish, remanufacture and recycling opportunities are rarely considered. In sustainable procurement, organizations meet their needs for good and services in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis that generates benefits to the organization and society having minimum impact on the environment. In a circular economy business model, collaboration is important where the procurer and the service provider work together to develop a solution, to work through any issues and to capture data to evidence the benefits of the new approaches. Read more: link.

How public procurement can help build the circular economy

The circular economy is currently regarded as a systemic solution to key sustainability issues. It is being embraced by companies, governments, and citizens as it has the potential to protect the environment while creating jobs, business growth opportunities and cost savings. Public authorities, through the purchasing of products and services (public procurement), can accelerate this transition. Several structural challenges as barriers (i.e., skills, institutional risk averseness, lack of business case) need to be addressed to make the transition from linear to circular procurement smooth. Read more: link.