Using Sustainable Public Procurement to Drive Demand for a Near-Zero and Resilient Built Environment
A global audience joined UNEP, C40 Cities, and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction for a webinar exploring how sustainable public procurement (SPP) can accelerate demand for a near-zero, circular and climate-resilient built environment. The event highlighted practical case studies from Oslo, San Francisco, the Netherlands, and Wales, showcased the C40 clean construction and net-zero buildings accelerators, and concluded with a call to action under the Global Framework for Action on Sustainable Sustainable Public Procurement in the Built Environment.
Procurement as a Climate Tool:
The session opened emphasizing that procurement—representing up to 20% of GDP globally—can act as a strategic lever to reduce emissions, spur market innovation, and ensure public spending aligns with environmental and social priorities. With buildings responsible for 37% of global GHG emissions and 50% of raw material use, the construction sector is central to achieving national climate goals.
C40 Accelerators: Cities are using collective ambition to shift markets.
The Clean Construction Accelerator focuses on reducing embodied emissions, promoting circular design, low-carbon materials, and zero-emission construction sites.
The Net-Zero Carbon Buildings Accelerator targets operational emissions, requiring net-zero new buildings and ambitious retrofit pathways.
Both accelerators create clear, durable long-term demand signals, encouraging industry to scale low-carbon and resilient solutions.
City and Country Case Studies:
Oslo, Norway: Standardizing Low-Carbon Requirements
Oslo has a multi-year effort to cut material-related emissions from municipal buildings by 50% by 2030. Key actions include:
100% electrification of construction sites for municipal projects.
Portfolio-wide CO₂ limits and the standardization on material requirements in materials such as concrete, steel, asphalt and aggregates.
A combination of minimum requirements and award criteria designed to stimulate innovation.
Oslo’s approach demonstrates how procurement standards can transform both public projects and private sector behavior.
2. The Netherlands: Circular Procurement Lessons
The Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam (MRA) aims to be a climate-neutral and circular region by 2050. Within the Circular economy program, the MRA is working on Circular Procurement & Commissioning, that offers a step-by-step plan for circular procurement, a toolkit and circular procurement guides.
Examples from Apeldoorn’s participation in the EU’s CityLoops project showcased tools for evaluating the full lifecycle impacts of construction materials—from production to deconstruction and reuse. The resulting generic circular construction guidance is now supporting European municipalities to integrate circular principles into standard procurement practices.
3. Wales (United Kingdom): Linking Circularity and Carbon
Cardiff Council’s climate targets translate into procurement action:
Construction-related purchasing accounts for a major share of the city’s scope 3 emissions, with procurement representing 81% of total municipal emissions.
Through the Ardle Partnership, Cardiff and regional councils jointly embed circular and low-carbon requirements into civil engineering, building and professional services frameworks.
Mandatory supplier carbon reduction plans ensure alignment across the supply chain.
4. San Francisco, USA: Embedding Climate and Resilience in Law
San Francisco’s integrated Green Building and Resilience Standards in their Municipal Code under three pillars:
Public buildings are legally required to comply with climate-integrated performance standards, including mandatory EPDs, WLCAs, and deconstruction-first approaches, as well as the prohibition of fossil fuel systems to be installed. 100% renewable electricity at the city level target by 2025 was implemented in 2020 and achieved by 2023.
Circular & healthy materials procurement, through a reduction and recovery plan. Circularity is included in procurement and construction contract, as well as an approved alternative list for chemicals of concern in building materials. It helps build a market for reusable, recyclable and low toxicity building materials.
Resilience & nature-based design, including resilience measures such as solar-plus-storage systems capable of 72-hour operation during outages. It supports an adaptive, biodiverse and healthier environment.
The governance model is through a cross-agency municipal task force, ensuring high compliance and preventing design backsliding. San Francisco reports a clear market response—greater transparency, more suppliers offering low-toxicity and low-carbon products, and growing secondary materials markets.
Global Framework for Action: From Commitments to Implementation:
UNEP’s Global Framework for Action on Sustainable Public Procurement, endorsed by eight countries: Ghana, Colombia, Brazil, Finland, Japan, France, Kenya and Somalia. The framework sets out five common principles:
Empower all levels of government to drive sustainable procurement.
Prioritise early-stage decisions to cut resource use and impacts.
Apply circular and near-zero goals across the complete procurement cycle
Build skills and share knowledge to accelerate implementation.
Ensure procurement delivers inclusive, low-impact, nature-positive outcomes.
The framework aims to scale national and subnational action, supported by partners such as the African Development Bank, IISD, and eco-labeling networks. UNEP called for further partners to help transition from endorsement to implementation ahead of the next UN climate conference in Türkiye.
A representative of the Ministry of the Environment of Finland closed the session by underscoring the need for coordinated, long-term market signals, noting that SPP is one of the most cost-effective levers to shift the construction sector toward near-zero emissions and resilience. The webinar demonstrated that cities and countries worldwide are already turning procurement into a transformative climate tool—and that harmonized global action can accelerate this shift.
Key areas of interest from the audience:
The Q&A section highlighted strong demand for practical implementation guidance. Attendees focused on four themes:
Applying circular and low-carbon criteria: How to define requirements, set CO₂ limits, and verify compliance.
Data and transparency gaps: How to work with limited LCA/EPD data, especially in emerging markets.
Supplier readiness: How to support SMEs and phase requirements without excluding local industry.
Governance and enforcement: How cities ensure consistent application of standards across design, procurement, and project delivery.
The full webinar recording is now available online. We invite you to watch the session and explore the materials to support your own SPP implementation efforts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPoQgycXzUQ
