February 2, 2026
Sustainable Public Procurement | 10YFP/UNEP A Year-in-Review 2025
In 2025, Sustainable Public Procurement strengthened its role as a key lever for climate action and circularity, with governments increasingly using public purchasing power to drive market change. The 10YFP Secretariat (hosted at UNEP) advanced a shared global reference point for action on Sustainable Public Procurement, particularly in the built environment. This document highlights the main achievements and priorities that shaped progress over the last year.
Global initiative positions government purchasing power as a lever for climate action
Eight countries formally endorsed the Global Framework for Action on Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) in the Built Environment, signaling a shared commitment to use public demand to accelerate decarbonisation, circularity, and resilience in construction and infrastructure.
Sustainable public procurement integrates environmental, social, and life-cycle criteria into how governments buy, from materials to digital and energy systems. Because public authorities are among the world’s largest buyers, procurement decisions shape markets. When governments require whole life-cycle assessments, circular materials, or climate-aligned standards, suppliers respond at scale.
Brazil, Colombia, Finland, France, Ghana, Japan, Kenya, and Somalia endorsed the Framework in 2025. A further five countries: Armenia, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom, formally acknowledged its importance at the inaugural Ministerial Meeting of the Intergovernmental Council for Buildings and Climate (ICBC) at COP30. Together, these signals mark a shift from fragmented pilots toward a shared global reference point for action.
2025: From ambition to implementation
Progress this year was anchored across four mutually reinforcing fronts:
1. Political momentum
Our engagement extended across high-level policy forums and technical working groups. Fourteen convenings advanced the role of procurement as a climate and development lever, including the World Circular Economy Forum, the GlobalABC Annual Assembly, the 5th Global Conference on Sustainable Food Systems, the RICG Annual Conference, and the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development, among others. Notably, four Buildings Breakthrough Roundtables mobilised action under the Priority Action on Demand Creation through public procurement, placing buyers at the centre of systems change.
At COP30 in Belém, under Axis 6 (Enablers and Accelerators), UNEP, Brazil’s Ministry of Management and Innovation, the Jataí Institute, UNIDO IDDI, and OxGAP co-led the development and launch of the Plan to Accelerate Solutions on Harnessing public procurement in high-impact sectors to drive climate action and a just transition. UNEP also co-led five side events to elevate the agenda. This effort was accompanied by the Brazil-led Belém Declaration on Sustainable Public Procurement, outlining concrete measures to align procurement systems with the UN 2030 Agenda.
2. Technical progress
To support governments in moving from policy to practice, UNEP launched three cornerstone resources:
• The Global Framework for Action on SPP in the Built Environment, providing a structured pathway to embed circularity across the full procurement cycle;
• The Circularity and Whole Life-Cycle Case Study Platform, showcasing real-world applications aligned with the 10 Whole Life-Cycle Recommendations;
• The National Circularity Assessment Framework for Buildings, enabling governments to identify gaps, priorities, and entry points for improving circular material and waste flow in the buildings and construction sector.
These resources were complemented by three regional workshops and six global webinars, strengthening peer learning and south–south exchange. Visit our last webinar on best practices for implementation at local level: Use of sustainable public procurement to drive demand for a near-zero and resilient built environment.
UNEP also developed key resources and achieved important milestones under the EcoAdvance project, jointly implemented by GIZ and Öko Institut, and funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN). A series of good practices on the joint use of ecolabels and SPP was launched, with eight of them replicated by ecolabelling schemes and governments. Uzbekistan adopted a resolution introducing measures to strengthen the use of ecolabels in support of SPP, granting certified products an additional five per cent in their overall evaluation score when certified by a recognized ecolabel. Costa Rica's NDC 2025–2035 was launched, including commitments on SPP and ecolabelling in the building sector. Meanwhile, Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Uzbekistan developed ambitious climate- and biodiversity-related ecolabel criteria for cement and steel, and promoted policy dialogues to support the application of these criteria in SPP.
3. Global monitoring
As custodian of SDG Indicator 12.7.1, UNEP led the 2025 global reporting cycle on sustainable public procurement policies. Sixty-five countries reported, including 13 first-time participants such as Brazil, Australia, South Africa, and the Russian Federation. Fifty-four countries achieved compliant scores.
The data confirms a consistent trend: while policy frameworks are increasingly in place, implementation support for procurement officers, impact measurement, and market engagement remain uneven. The global average maturity score remained medium-low, confirming that legislative frameworks exist, but that practical implementation tools and impact measurement lag behind. These evidence-based insights will now directly inform the design of 2026 regional capacity-building programmes and our global advocacy efforts.
4. Strategic partnerships
Collaboration deepened with the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC), the Buildings Breakthrough community, and regional partners, as well as with UN agencies: UNOPS and UNIDO for the built environment, and FAO for food systems. In Latin America, UNEP is advancing a joint regional SPP strategy with eight countries: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, México, Panamá, Paraguay, Perú, and the República Dominicana. In Africa, a complementary regional approach is under development, with six countries: Senegal, Ghana, Kenya, Tunisia, Mauritius, and South Africa, co-designing a tailored capacity-building programme for implementation in 2026.
What’s next: 2026 priorities
The focus now shifts decisively to delivery:
1. Launch five online training modules on circular and sustainable procurement for buildings and construction, developed with IISD
2. Pilot regional SPP programmes in Africa and Latin America, enabling structured south–south cooperation, and scale buyer–supplier dialogues to translate policy signals into market response and accelerate supplier innovation
3. Expand endorsement and uptake of the Global Framework for Action on SPP in the built environment, and finalize and launch the Global Framework for Action on SPP to advance sustainable food systems
4. Deliver implementation milestones through COP30 PAS on SPP deployment and strategic engagement towards COP31
5. Enhance SDG 12.7.1 monitoring, transforming reporting data into actionable insights for decision-makers
Acknowledgements
This progress reflects the collective efforts of partners across the global sustainable procurement community, including UNOPS, UNIDO, and FAO; the co-leads and multistakeholder advisory committee members of the One Planet Network SPP Programme; the Ministry of the Environment of Finland; the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management of the Netherlands; Brazil’s Ministry of Management and Innovation; the European Commission's Directorate-General for Environment; Jataí Institute; the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction and its Circular Built Environment Working Group; the Global Framework for Action Leadership Panel; the Buildings Breakthrough community; the 10YFP Board; and the growing network of governments, colleagues and procurement officers advancing this work on the ground.
Learn more at UNEP One Planet Network news center.
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