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June 22, 2026
How can public procurement rules and criteria be redesigned to deliver low-carbon and resilience?
This question was directly addressed during a dedicated procurement workshop at the GlobalABC Sustainable Buildings & Construction Summit, Lausanne on 20th April, 2026. The session moved beyond the theory to test how the Global Framework for Action: Harnessing sustainable and circular public procurement to drive demand for a near-zero and resilient built environment can be applied in practice.
Using a real project scenario, participants explored how procurement can shift from lowest upfront cost to whole-life value, carbon performance, and circularity. The discussion was driven around the importance of policies and leadership, the implementation mechanisms along the procurement life-cycle and the market response.
What are the challenges?
During the discussion, participants identified a set of systemic barriers that are holding back progress, including:
Fragmentation across ministries, policies, standards and processes.
Continued focus on lowest cost over lifecycle value and carbon performance
Limited use of performance-based approaches and lifecycle tools
Gaps in data availability and reliability
Weak coordination with the market.
What needs to change?
Some priority actions converged with the Global Framework for Action around the need to:
1. Strengthen policy alignment and leadership (P1.1)
Enable inter-ministerial collaboration to develop integrated building policies addressing operational and embodied carbon, circularity, and lifecycle assessment; supported by aligned standards, budgets, and incentives.
2. Redesign procurement practices (P3.2)
Adopt performance-based procurement that rewards innovation and outcomes, supported by the alignment of standards, strong data systems, and green financing are essential to scale sustainable construction.
3. Activate market collaboration (P2.6; P3.3).
Use early market engagement and collaborative procurement methods (e.g. competitive dialogues) to create clear demand signals and enable innovation across the value chain.
What enables implementation?
Scaling these actions requires aligned standards and metrics (e.g. embodied carbon, circularity), robust data systems for tracking performance, green financing and incentives to reduce risk, and capacity-building across procuring entities.
Key takeaway from this session
The workshop roundtables highlighted that policy ambition is advancing faster than implementation capability. However, by aligning leadership, operational tools, and market collaboration, public procurement can become a powerful demand-side driver for a near-zero, circular built environment. The Global Framework for Action provides a common direction, but impact depends on applying these actions in day-to-day procurement decisions.
Launched at this session: Online course to support implementation
To support the transition from ambition to practice, a new free online course on sustainable and circular public procurement for the built environment developed by UNEP was launched at the Summit.
More details at One Planet Network website.
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June 9, 2026
International Public Procurement Conference 2026: Procurement for Prosperity-Driving Jobs, Innovation, and Impact in East Asia and Pacific co-hosted by Thailand’s Comptroller General’s Department, World Bank and ADB, the IPPC 2026 explores how procurement can become a strategic driver of prosperity.
Public procurement sits at the crossroads of digital transformation, market development, and socio-economic progress. The rise of digital tools, data, and AI is turning procurement into a more transparent, evidence-based system—helping governments move beyond lowest-price decisions toward best value, quality, and long-term impact. By strengthening analytics, interoperability, and supplier engagement, procurement can better align with national priorities, support competitive local industries, create jobs, and deliver sustainable public value.
In the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region, reforms have focused on digitalization, sustainability, and inclusive growth. Building on the momentum of the Seoul 2024 and Manila 2025 IPPC conferences, IPPC 2026 will advance lessons learned and regional best practices to further modernize procurement systems.
Co-hosted by Thailand’s Comptroller General’s Department, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank, and in partnership with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), IPPC 2026 will explore how procurement can become a strategic driver of national prosperity by 2030. Over three days, participants will share tools, innovations, and partnerships to help governments design value-driven procurement systems that generate quality outcomes, sustainable jobs, and resilient markets.
Event documents are available at World Bank Group Events webpage.
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June 2, 2026
Why This Course Matters?
The built environment is at the heart of the climate crisis, accounting for 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 40% of global resource use. With half of the buildings expected to exist in 2050 not yet built, there is an urgent need to rethink how we design and manage our infrastructure.
Governments spend roughly 13% of global GDP on procurement, providing a massive lever to shift markets toward near-zero-emission, circular, and resilient solutions. This course empowers you to turn high-level sustainability goals into concrete procurement decisions.
What You Will Learn?
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
-Navigate the Global Context: Understand the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the built environment.
-Master the Global Framework for Action: Harnessing sustainable and circular public procurement to drive demand for a near-zero and resilient built environment: Apply the high-level principles and priority actions for implementing circularity across the buildings and construction value chain.
-Apply Practical Tools: Learn to use Whole Life Costing (WLC), ecolabels, and performance-based specifications.
-Identify Enabling Conditions: Explore the policies, financing, and capacity-building needed for procurement success.
-Monitor Impact: Implement frameworks to track progress against SDG 12.7.1 and other national commitments.
Course Features
Duration: Approximately 10 hours of self-paced learning.
-Interactive Content: Includes videos, case studies, and open-ended reflection tasks.
-Expert Backed: Developed by UNEP with IISD as technical partner, peer-reviewed by global experts from UNOPS, ICLEI, OECD, CEC China (IGPN Secretariat), C40, Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, ITC ILO, Impacti, SKAO and Western Cape Government. And pilot-tested by users in Argentina, Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, Philippines, Somalia, South Africa, and USA.
-Certification: Earn a Certificate of Completion by passing module quizzes with a score of 70% or higher.
Who Should Join?
While designed for public procurement officers and policymakers, this course is also highly relevant for:
-Technical officials and oversight bodies.
-Private sector suppliers and industry associations.
-Civil society actors and training providers.
-Prerequisites: Introductory level knowledge of procurement is recommended
Join the Course by register at weLearn platform.
More details at UNEP One Planet Network website.
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June 1, 2026
A new technical brief developed jointly by the Secretariat for the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP) and the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions is out now!
Entitled 'Synergies between circularity, life-cycle approaches and the objectives of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions' provides insights on co-benefits on synergies between circularity, life-cycle approaches and the objectives of the Conventions.
Discover:
- Why transition to a circular economy in the context of chemical and waste pollution
- Circular economy and life-cycle approaches as recognized in international decisions
- Co-benefits of circular economy approaches and issues to be managed
- How implementing the objectives of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions contributes to achieving a circular economy
- Policy interventions that can advance both the objectives of the Conventions and circularity
- Relevant work of the 10YFP Secretariat and the One Planet Network in advancing these objectives.
More details at: One Planet Network News Center.
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