Policy maker or sustainability manager

Many procurement teams are still looking for just the right interpretation of the broad and abstract term ‘circularity’. As a policy maker or sustainability manager, it’s important to ensure that there is a clear definition of the term at a strategic level. What is circularity and what does it mean for your organisation?

Include some spearheads in the definition, as that will help procurement teams to make decisions that are consistent with the direction the organisation wishes to take. One could be ‘purchase a larger proportion of recycled materials’.

Circular procurement requires the internal organisation to be prepared for the design of a circular procurement process. What role do you play in this as a policy maker or sustainability manager? The following steps will be important to you.

Internal organisation – these are your steps

Click on the steps to discover how your internal organisation needs to prepare for a circular procurement process:

Procurement process – these are your steps

Click on the step to design a circular procurement process from the perspective of your role:

💡 Tip

• Ensure that a team is in place to check whether a request is consistent with the circular ambition of the organisation. In a ‘tender board’, for example. This team must include a circularity expert. The team may block a request if it is not consistent with the ambition or if there is no good reason to deviate from it. This may involve applying the ‘comply or explain’ principle. This is an effective way to monitor the degree of circularity of the request.