Circularity and Public Procurement

In line with the Global Strategy for Sustainable Consumption and Production (2023-2030), the One Planet Network flagship initiative “Mainstreaming circularity in the construction sector leveraging the power of sustainable public procurement” aims to raise climate ambitions in the construction sector through circularity, leveraging the power of public procurement by:

1. Developing and promoting global norms, standards and metrics for circularity in the construction sector, using a whole-lifecycle approach, in partnership with governments and the private sector.  
2. Establishing a strategic framework for action and a multi-stakeholder knowledge sharing and capacity-building partnership to help national and local governments use their planning, managing and purchasing power to accelerate the uptake of such norms, standards and metrics for circularity in the construction sector.    

The flagship initiative goal is to enable national and local governments, in partnership with the private sector, to use their planning, managing and purchasing power to accelerate the integration of circularity norms, standards and metrics in the construction sector. The ambition is to secure commitments for action from 50 partners, including national governments, local authorities, financial institutions and other key market players from the business sector, to adopt and/or implement SPP principles, including circularity/material efficiency criteria, in the construction sector by the end of 2024. 

The flagship initiative development process is in the stage of stocktaking and “identification”, on which the 10YFP/OPN Secretariat is working closely with the GlobalABC Materials Hub  co-led by UNEP and the Green Building Council Costa Rica, through its Circular Built Environment working Group led by the Ministry of the Environment of Finland and RMIT (former leads of the OPN Sustainable Buildings and Construction Programme), the leads of the One Planet Sustainable Public Procurement programme – Netherlands (Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management of the Netherlands), China (Environmental Development Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection) and ICLEI, as well as with the support of core partners including UNOPS, UN-Habitat and WBCSD.