Resumen de Alignment of green public procurement criteria with circular economy principles for buildings

María-Silvanna Catasús-Rojas, Marta Braulio Gonzalo, María Dolores Bovea Edo

• The lifecycle of buildings in the European Union (EU) accounts for a great amount of resources consumption and environmental impact. Transitioning buildings and construction sector to the Circular Economy (CE) implies implementing a model of production and consumption where materials and products are used, leased, reused, repaired, refurbished and recycled for as long as possible to extend their lifecycles. In this context, the UE recognises the potential of the Green Public Procurement (GPP) to promote the CE practices, as well as the key role played by public administrations to encourage the construction of more sustainable and energy efficient buildings, and to lead by example. To date, the European Commission has developed voluntary GPP criteria and requirements for some economic sectors, including office buildings, but these criteria seem to focus mostly on the environmental pillar, meanwhile the circular aspects need to be also incorporated in the public tendering process, to boost a true circularity transition. Considering the above, this study is aimed at exploring how the EU GPP framework for the construction sector is aligned with the CE principles for buildings, in order to identify the gap and facilitate the transition of this sector towards circularity by means of GPP, as a driver tool. The main building’s lifecycle stages and stakeholders involved in the public procurement process were also explored in the study. To meet this aim, three main stages were carried out: (I) Analysis of EU GPP criteria for office buildings, (II) Analysis of CE principles for building design, and (III) Relationship between EU GPP criteria and CE principles. As a result, a cross CE/GPP and stakeholders’ matrix was developed, outlining the correlation between both frameworks and the identification of the key stakeholders in each building’s lifecycle stage. The results allowed to identify a relevant gap and the need to integrate circularity in the current GPP framework, towards an effective Circular Public Procurement (CPP) framework. Further developments shall be done to develop CPP criteria for the building and construction sector considering the findings of this work