Collaboration for Circular Economy: Linking sustainable public procurement and business models

As part of the Life+ REBUS project in the Netherlands, a collaboration between organisations and consultants working on pilot evaluations was established in the green deal on circular procurement to have access to knowledge and experience on sustainable procurement and find the case study companies. Two case studies from the Dutch Green Deal on Circular Procurement were analysed by carrying out each five interviews with people related to the procurement process all being part of the.
This report presents the framework that was developed to link sustainable public procurement with the delivery of CE in the Netherlands. The framework emphasises the promotion of REBMs through SPP by defining technical, non-technical specifications for improved recovery rates, and socio-cultural specifications for improved collaboration during the procurement process. The collaboration between procurement and business models for Circular Economy (ProBiz4CE) framework was developed through a literature review on SPP, SBM and Circular Economy (CE). The ProBiz4CE framework was designed to be holistic, dynamic, and practice oriented, and be applicable to different cases in the Netherlands and the EU.
From the application of the framework in these two case studies we can conclude that :
Integrating sustainability into the procurement process specifications and the organisational system of companies will have to be adjusted on four levels: 1) their products or services; 2) the processes leading to these products/services; and 3) the business models enabling these processes and product/services, and, 4) the strategy and vision of each company. The experiences and knowledge coming from a sustainable procurement project are not communicated efficiently throughout the organisation. More focus on these learning processes can help companies realise greater financial and organisational benefits from their involvement in circular procurement processes.
Collaboration with other companies, leading to alliances in the value chain, network or the wider society, is an important first step towards contributing to CE. Alliances determine business models and can lead to a formal business transaction. The informal alliances between actors serves for, for example, network building and knowledge exchange, as a preparation for formal alliances in the future. Collaborative relations increase the level of cohesion in groups and their members and emphasise the trust between value chain actors as well as transparency of the information between different actors as a prerequisite for sustainable public procurement.
Uncertainty about the future makes it complicated to know with certainty possible levels of resource efficiency of products or services during the requirement development phase of the procurement process. Despite the current focus on indicators for circular products and service, non-technical specifications on depreciation of the products and shared risk for residual value should be included emphasising the need for an indicator based on scenario planning on both environmental and economic issues. Creativity, flexibility, and cooperation of legal advisors and lawyers are key to challenge current procurement legislation.