Initial Studies on Circular Procurement
Circular Procurement is based on the idea that purchases are made with the principles of circular economy, such as production, product or services, in mind. It requires new agreements and long-term partnership between the buyer and supplier. Its benefits are three-prong: strategically, it strengthens the organization’s long-term approach; financially, it helps to lower costs, and ethically, it creates societal value for the company. To use European nations as an example, they merged circular procurement into the “green’ procurement doctrines, and morphed it into an alternate green procurement tactic: the use of the government’s purchasing power to boost sustainable consumption and production. As a part of its Green Deal, Holland successfully formed a partnership between the government and private enterprises where both parties were able to learn a lot from each other, and have now set the goal of having 10% of its national budget be based on circular procurement by 2020.
Although Taiwan’s current green procurement is only based on products, and does not include services or projects, it’s had some success: In 2017, green procurement consists of 0.67% of the national budget, and carbon emission level lowered by 0.0004. Because the entire procurement concept lacks the life span/total ownership concept, with the rigidity of the current financial process, it’s been hard to find a
new method forward.
(Available only in Chinese)
Learning from the European nations, we can establish a roadmap for Taiwan’s circular procurement: 1) Use the procurement process to promote circular businesses or incorporate regulation in support of circular procurement in the purchasing requirements; 2) Promote the four levels of circular economy:acquire circular products/services, support the circular economy business model, encourage collaboration between different industries, and champion circular ecosystems. The inclusion of circular procurement not only compliments the government’s initiative to support and obtain the development of new digital technology, but it can also offer traditional manufacturing businesses with an opportunity to provide add-on value. Priority consideration should be given to the following areas: Creation of new clothes through recycled textile, air condition services, LED lightbulb services, and car-sharing services.Since there are differences between Taiwan government’s green procurement practice and those of theEuropean nations, Taiwan should consider replicating Holland’s public-private initiative to establish an experimental plan for the mainstreaming and inclusion of circular procurement in the future.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please write to info@circular-taiwan.org