The Procurement Agenda for the Transition to a Circular Economy

Abstract

The circular economy (CE) has emerged as an upcoming promising solution to global sustainability. Some policymakers have issued legislations to encourage the adoption of CE, and academics have published studies addressing CE from different approaches. However, adopting CE entails a disruptive shift from a linear economy to a closed-loop economy, where economic growth is decoupled from consumption growth. Though it is difficult to develop a uniform, structured approach for incorporating CE into procurement, this paper attempts to fill the current knowledge gap by proposing a holistic framework to embed CE into the procurement process. The procurement ecosystem is very complex, and this study accordingly dismantles the ecosystem into basic components. The integration of CE for each component is addressed separately. Propositions have then been developed for each element within the procurement ecosystem to embrace CE. The research findings suggest that governments can play an important role in promulgating laws and regulations that encourage CE within procurement. The buyer should be willing to pay a premium for circular products or services; training is needed to address CE when drafting the agreement and during the technical and proposal evaluation. In regard to the bidders’ prequalification evaluation, a certain weight should be assigned to the adoption of CE. Furthermore, the bid–award system should give preferential treatment to circular materials or services.

Implementation of circular economy in construction projects: a procurement strategy approach

“…This insight resonates with the recent findings about the industry actors’ limited knowledge of the standard practices of CE within the construction sector (Adams et al , 2017; Benachio et al , 2020). Therefore, developing and institutionalising international standards to assess and certify the circularity of products and services has been suggested to accelerate the adoption of CE in procurement (Al-Sinan and Bubshait, 2022).…”

“…In particular, procurement can play a vital role for CE implementation in the selection of suppliers and partners that adopt or have, for example, green certifications. Therefore, it has been suggested that procurement methods should include the CE implementation as a specific section that concentrates on the applicability of CE, defined criteria, checklists and rankings for suppliers that are working towards CE (Al-Sinan and Bubshait, 2022).…”

“…Another main challenge in the implementation of CE in procurement is the lack of standards for CE appraisal, both on the supplier and the product level. Instituting international standards to assess and certify the circularity of products and services should accelerate the adoption of CE in procurement (Al-Sinan and Bubshait, 2022). Moreover, circular procurement can also be understood as an approach that recognises the role that private and public authorities have in supporting the transition towards CE.…”

Saudi Arabia’s Journey toward Net-Zero Emissions: Progress and Challenges

“…Regarding the Saudi measures to reduce emissions, several studies were reviewed to determine and discuss the commonly implemented measures [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Subsequently, a benchmark of the Saudi measures reported in the 2021 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) [20] was conducted against the common measures to reduce emissions.…”

“…Governments' common measures to reduce emissions include introducing policies (e.g., carbon pricing mechanisms, energy efficiency), supporting research and development, and deploying low-carbon technologies [6]. Governments can adopt one or more of the following policies to reduce GHG and carbon emissions in particular [7][8][9][10][11]:…”