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October 10, 2025
The European Union has launched a public consultation for its upcoming Circular Economy Act (CEA), a key step in its push towards a more circular economic model. The initiative invites businesses, civil society, and citizens globally to provide input on a new framework for sustainable production.
A New Market for Circularity
The European Commission plans to propose a Circular Economy Act to enhance the EU’s economic security and competitiveness, while promoting more sustainable production, circular economy business models, and decarbonization. The Act will facilitate the free movement of ‘circular’ products, secondary raw materials, and waste. It will also increase the supply of high-quality recycled materials and stimulate demand for these materials in the EU.
The CEA will build on existing frameworks with the objective of creating a robust single market for secondary raw materials. It aims to increase the supply of high-quality recycled materials and stimulate market demand, making them a more viable alternative to virgin resources.
Key areas under discussion include:
Design for Circularity: The Act will explore comprehensive obligations for product design, making goods easier to repair, reuse, and recycle.
"Right to Repair": The CEA is expected to strengthen "Right to Repair" initiatives, ensuring consumer access to affordable spare parts and repair services.
Sustainable Public Procurement: The consultation is gathering input on how governments can use public procurement to actively create a market for circular products and services.
Stakeholder Engagement
The consultation has already seen a proactive response from industry. Businesses and industry associations are engaging directly to help draft workable legislation.
"This is a crucial moment for businesses to get ahead of the curve," a representative from a leading European business association stated. "By providing feedback now, companies can ensure the final legislation is both ambitious and practical, setting a level playing field that rewards innovation in circular business models."
The CEA’s focus on harmonization also aims to simplify compliance for companies operating across multiple Member States, reducing administrative burdens and creating a clear pathway for circular innovations to scale.
How to Respond
The public consultation for the Circular Economy Act is open to a broad range of stakeholders, both within and outside the EU.
Who Can Respond?
Businesses and Industry Associations: All companies are welcome to provide input on how new rules will affect their operations.
NGOs and Environmental Groups: These organizations ensure the Act is ambitious and delivers on its environmental goals.
Government Authorities: National, regional, and local governments are invited to share their experiences.
Academics and Researchers: Researchers and universities are encouraged to provide evidence-based feedback.
Individual Citizens: Anyone with an interest in product durability, the right to repair, or waste reduction can share their opinion.
How to Take Part
Respondents can participate through the European Commission's official "Have Your Say" portal. This is the centralized platform where all feedback is collected. The portal provides a structured questionnaire and allows for the submission of supporting documents.
The public consultation is open until November 6, 2025.
To take part in the consultation, please visit the official "Have Your Say" portal here.
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September 29, 2025
The 2025 Procura+ Awards jury has selected its finalists. The Award has three different categories: Sustainable Procurement of the Year, Innovation Procurement of the Year and Global Initiative of the Year. The winners will be announced on 8 October at the Procura+ Seminar in Middelburg (the Netherlands).
The Procura+ Awards-an ICLEI Europe initiative within the context of its Procura+ Network-seek to highlight sustainable, circular and innovation procurements and tender procedures and give visibility to the most dynamic, forward-looking and innovative public authorities and their initiatives.
ICLEI member Oslo (Norway) is among the nominees in the category Innovation Procurement of the Year, being recognised for launching the ‘Oslo Furniture Reuse Platform-Loopfront’, a pioneering digital solution that integrates circular economy practices into public procurement. Its fellow finalists are Orleans Metropole (France), which has pioneered a sustainable energy project that captures heat from urban wastewater to supply clean energy to residential and university buildings and ANCI Toscana (Italy), nominated for its support of climate resilience through its innovation partnership.
In the Sustainable Procurement of the Year category, the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) (Germany) has been recognised for integrating Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) into their public procurement of electric bus charging points. The Oeiras City Council (Portugal) developed a forward-thinking public procurement model for the maintenance of its green spaces, Bretagne Porte de Loire Communauté (France) decided to furnish its new ‘Maison de services Jeunesse & Numérique’ entirely with second-life furniture.
The Global Initiative of the Year is a pioneering category, opening up the Procura+ Awards to public authorities from outside Europe for the first time. Its finalists come from three different continents. The Brazilian Ministry of Management & Innovation in Public Services launched Procure+Brasil, a digital public marketplace aiming to make public procurement more inclusive and sustainable. In New Zealand, the Auckland City Council launched the NGA Puna Pukuenga Programme, which connects individuals facing barriers to work to permanent, living-wage jobs in the water and infrastructure sectors. Finally, UNDP Uzbekistan’s initiative, “The Path to Water Through Life, No One Left Behind,” sought to provide sustainable access to clean water in remote communities of Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan.
Learn more at ICLEI sustainable procurement platform webpage.
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September 12, 2025
FAO’s new flagship publication, Transforming Food and Agriculture through a Systems Approach, offers practical guidance to help policymakers and practitioners take joined-up action across agrifood systems. It presents a concrete framework built around six key elements of a systems approach—systems thinking, knowledge, governance, doing, investment and learning—showing how each contributes to sustained transformation at scale. Moving beyond fragmented efforts, the report emphasizes smarter connections between sectors, goals and stakeholders to deliver lasting impact on food security, nutrition, equity and sustainability. Drawing from 19 real-world examples, it highlights how countries and cities are already applying this approach—from sustainable food procurement in New York to systems-oriented policy-making in Rwanda—demonstrating that transformation aligned with the 2030 Agenda is both possible and within reach.
More details at FAO open knowledge center.
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September 8, 2025
Data centres in developing countries are set to grow rapidly due to economic expansion, rising data demand and increasing data sovereignty needs. However, these facilities are highly energy-intensive. Despite efficiency improvements, regulations remain insufficient, with the EU still drafting its first Data Centre Regulation. Against this background, United For Efficiency has developed the Sustainable Procurement Guidelines for Data Centres and Computer Servers.
These guidelines are designed to help organisations set robust criteria and processes that improve the energy efficiency of their current or upcoming facilities. They offer recommendations on several key performance criteria and operating conditions that are most relevant and impactful for selecting energy-efficient data centres and computer servers. The criteria cover indicators such as power usage effectiveness, water usage effectiveness, IT equipment energy efficiency, and cooling effectiveness ratio.
Learn more at UNEP resources webpage.
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September 1, 2025
The European Commission has published two new practical guides highlighting how EU Ecolabels can be used for the public procurement of respectively graphic paper and tissue paper and paper products. For both product groups, the guides identify the most relevant EU Ecolabel criteria that can be used when drafting technical specifications and award criteria.
The EU Ecolabel is the official EU voluntary label for environmental excellence and features over 102.000 certified products in 25 different categories. The EU ecolabel criteria are scientifically based, legally established and third-party verified. The criteria, developed through extensive research and stakeholder consultation are regularly updated to adjust to evolving environmental priorities and technological advancements. All EU Ecolabel certified products can be found in the ECAT catalogue.
Public buyers seeking to buy green can require goods and/or services to EU Ecolabel certified, or they can reference identified EU ecolabel criteria in the technical specifications and/or award criteria. Both options reduce administrative verification efforts, and lead to the purchase of products that meet strict environmental standards, without compromising on performance. EU Ecolabels also offer public procurers economic benefits, as they offering access to competitively priced goods and services, while helping contracting authorities to meet sustainability objectives without compromising on quality and on value for money.
Some public administrations, such as the Government of Flanders and the Slovenian Ministry of Public Administration have already used the EU ecolabels successfully in their tenders. More information about them can be found in an article written for the GPP Helpdesk. In addition, interested stakeholders can join the 10 October webinar, highlighting key insights on the use of EU ecolabels as well as some best practices. Register here for the webinar!
Learn more at ICLEI Sustainable procurement platform webpage.
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August 25, 2025
The first CFIT mini guide is now available for download, offering practical, step-by-step strategies for carbon-conscious ICT procurement across the full procurement cycle—pre-tender, tender, and post-tender—alongside many real-world examples. As the ICT sector accounts for an estimated 1.4% to 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, potentially rising to 14% by 2040 according to the World Bank, action is urgent. This guide supports efforts to shape a low-carbon, circular, and fair ICT future while helping organisations meet climate targets, improve resource efficiency, and reduce costs. Developed with John Watt, CFIT Pact participants, and supporting organisations such as the Global Electronics Council and TCO Development, the guide is a collaborative effort.
About CFIT
The Circular & Fair ICT Pact is an action under the Sustainable Public Procurement Programme of the UN One Planet Network. It started as an initiative by the Dutch government in collaboration with other frontrunner countries and regions and in consultation with the ICT market.
The CFIT Pact is open to join for every organization procuring ICT. It supports both frontrunners in the field who want to make more impact together and other procurers who simply want to know how to make their own procurement more circular and fair. Governments with circular and fair ambitions around ICT (or other public organizations) can also join the pact as a coordinating organization supporting a buyer group. Both procurers and coordinators are crucial in building up our collective procurement power.
Other organizations such as ICT producers, ICT value chain partners, NGOs, network and knowledge organizations cannot be participants in the Pact to avoid any conflict of interest. They are more than welcome to sign the Pact as a supporter however. This means they help promote the Pact and its results, and to provide constructive input when invited to join a working group dialogue.
More details at Circular and Fair ICT Pact website.
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August 19, 2025
Public tenders should create space for community-led initiatives for renewable energy, allowing local actors to develop their own projects and to access the grid on equal footing with professional/market actors. This is one of the key points from the “Fast and Fair Renewables and Grids” agreement, which brings developers, local governments, civil society and industry. Collectively, these sectoral stakeholders have put forward a set of baseline principles to deploy new renewable energy infrastructure in a manner that creates fairer outcomes for all, thereby generating greater community support and easing local energy transitions.
The endorsing stakeholders flag that the risk to biodiversity and ecosystems will decrease by 75%, while climate change-related land loss and degradation will be 50% reduced, if renewables dominate the energy system. Building and operating new Renewable Energy Systems (RES) is less expensive than deploying coal and fossil gas plants in terms of environmental and economic cost in the long term. However, the advancement of RES remains too slow to achieve EU renewables targets to mitigate climate change, due to lengthy permitting times and lack of political support. At the local level, municipalities wanting to implement RES frequently encounter challenges such as local opposition, a lack of perceived local value and competing interests and motivations.
The Fast and Fair Renewables and Grids initiative aims to speed up the rollout of renewables at the local level and has established five baseline principles for how the development of new RES should be approached, focusing on local influence, local value, transparency, nature-positive impacts, and community empowerment.
Public procurement can be an important instrument in particular for community empowerment, as it can help establish a level playing field for all actors in the renewable energy market by creating “space in tenders, auctions and public procurement to allocate room for and/or remunerate projects developed by renewable energy communities.” In addition, tenderers could reduce administrative requirements, include community-focused bidding criteria, reserve space in tender procedures for opening new grid capacity and create tailored bidding windows, and exemptions for renewable energy communities.
The full set of principles can be found here.
More details at ICLEI sustainable procurement platform webpage.
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August 12, 2025
The 10YFP through its programs and initiatives, offers solutions to help governments and stakeholders move towards more sustainable consumption and production patterns. Four global solutions for sustainable, competitive, resilient, and circular economy:
I. PUBLIC PROCUREMENT can lead to more efficient use of public resources while improving social well-being and minimizing environmental impacts
Sustainable public procurement is a powerful lever for change, enabling governments to spend smarter by choosing goods and services that deliver value for money while also benefiting people and the planet. By embedding circularity and sustainability into procurement practices, countries can improve resource efficiency, reduce environmental impacts, and support inclusive development through better jobs, healthier communities, and resilient supply chains.
In 2024, progress focused on aligning procurement frameworks with circular economy goals, particularly in construction and infrastructure. Countries advanced tools, shared principles, and capacity-building efforts to support implementation at scale and improve public sector impact.
II. BUSINESS EMBRACE CIRCULARITY and drive more responsible production and consumption
Businesses across regions are increasingly embedding circular economy principles into their core strategies—moving beyond compliance to innovation. Through models focused on reuse, traceability, service design, and sustainable sourcing, companies are reducing waste, building resilience, and meeting the rising demand for responsible products. The One Planet Network supports this shift by providing tools, standards, and platforms that help scale impact and accountability.
In 2024, business engagement expanded through global platforms and technical guidance that strengthened sustainability claims, improved data systems, and supported circular practices across value chains. Companies increasingly recognised circularity as key to competitiveness, risk reduction and long-term value.
III. YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY IS ADVANCED through public-private partnership
Young people are central to driving the green transition, bringing fresh ideas, creativity and ambition. The One Planet Network is helping equip youth with the skills, leadership and opportunities they need to thrive in a circular economy—through training, global forums, and direct funding of youth-led initiatives. Public-private partnerships are opening pathways to green jobs while ensuring a just and inclusive transformation.
In 2024, thousands of young people were reached through training, dialogues and leadership opportunities. Youth contributed to international policy processes and gained tools to design and implement their own circular economy solutions, reinforcing intergenerational equity in action.
IV.COUNTRIES INTERGRATE AND IMPLEMENT circular economy approach
Governments around the world are integrating circular economy approaches into national policies, aligning with climate goals and sustainable development. Through peer learning, technical support and UN collaboration, countries are moving from planning to implementation—transforming sectors such as construction, procurement and food systems. Regional leadership and global cooperation are helping to accelerate this shift and embed circularity in real-world systems.
In 2024, more countries reported progress under SDG 12.1, expanded their use of circular economy tools, and deepened regional collaboration. National institutions strengthened their capacity to implement circularity through sectoral action, cross-ministerial coordination, and global policy alignment.
Learn more at UNEP One Planet Network news webpage.
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August 4, 2025
A new report commissioned by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as host of the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC), is calling for urgent action to reduce embodied carbon in construction materials as a critical step toward achieving global climate targets.Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the report forms part of UNEP’s broader initiative, “Transforming the Built Environment through Sustainable Materials,” and highlights the hidden but massive climate impact of materials like cement, aluminium, steel, bricks, and glass.
Embodied Carbon: The Hidden Emissions
Embodied carbon refers to the total greenhouse gas emissions associated with the lifecycle of building materials—from raw material extraction and manufacturing to transport, construction, maintenance, and end-of-life disposal. The report notes that 75% of these emissions stem from the manufacturing stage alone, with the remainder spread across transportation (13%), maintenance (11%), and construction (1%).In 2021, the buildings and construction sector was responsible for over 34% of global energy demand and approximately 37% of energy and process-related CO₂ emissions. Materials used in the sector contribute 11% of total global GHG emissions—underscoring the scale and urgency of the challenge.
Investment and Innovation Required
The financial stakes are high. According to a McKinsey analysis of the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) Net Zero 2050 scenario, a staggering $9.2 trillion per year must be spent globally on capital assets to reach net-zero. Of this, $2 trillion must be directed toward retrofits and improvements in existing assets in the construction sector, with $7.2 trillion needed for new, low-carbon construction.The report emphasizes the critical role of low-carbon alternatives, which can cut emissions by 19%–46% in certain building types. Yet, despite the availability of promising technologies, key data on cost and carbon savings remain sparse—hindering informed decision-making across the construction value chain.
Gaps in Carbon Market Methodologies
As part of the study, 28 carbon market methodologies addressing both embodied and operational emissions were examined, identifying 10 focused specifically on embodied carbon. Fifteen projects across countries such as China, India, Argentina, Bangladesh, and South Africa were analyzed—showing emission reductions ranging from 0.069 to 0.49 tonnes of CO₂e per unit. However, the report flags a significant gap: major carbon standards like VERRA and Gold Standard currently lack methodologies that directly address embodied carbon in buildings. Most embodied carbon projects identified were registered under CDM methodologies such as ACM005 and AMS.III.Z.
“If the construction sector is to align with global net-zero pathways, embodied carbon must move to the forefront of climate action”.
The report calls for comprehensive reform in carbon standards, mobilization of finance—including through carbon markets—and industry-wide adoption of low-carbon materials. Bridging these gaps is crucial for cutting the sector’s carbon footprint in half and ensuring a sustainable, resilient built environment by 2050.
Read the full report here: Carbon Financing For Low-Carbon Buildings | GlobalABC.
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