Case study: Circular procurement & buyer requirements — a city or utility pilot and the results so far

When the City of Amsterdam launched its Circular Procurement Programme in 2020, municipal officials set an ambitious target: by 2025, at least 50% of all public procurement by value would incorporate circular criteria. Five years later, the programme has generated detailed performance data, revealed systemic barriers that no policy document anticipated, and produced a replicable framework now being adopted by municipalities across Europe. This case study examines what worked, what failed, and what the measured outcomes reveal about transforming public purchasing from a linear to a circular model.

Context and Motivation

Amsterdam's municipal government spends approximately EUR 3.5 billion annually on goods, services, and infrastructure. This purchasing power represents one of the most potent levers available for driving market transformation toward circular economy principles. The programme emerged from the city's 2020 Circular Strategy, which identified procurement as the single highest-impact intervention available to local government, citing research from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimating that public procurement accounts for 12 to 15% of GDP across European Union member states.

The motivation extended beyond environmental objectives. Amsterdam faced escalating costs for waste processing, with municipal waste management expenditures growing at 6% annually between 2017 and 2020. Landfill capacity in the Netherlands was effectively exhausted, and incineration capacity was reaching utilization limits. Raw material price volatility, particularly for construction materials and electronics, created budget uncertainty that circular approaches could potentially mitigate. The Dutch government's nationwide Circular Economy Programme, targeting full circularity by 2050 with a 50% reduction in primary raw material consumption by 2030, provided regulatory tailwinds and co-funding opportunities.

The EU's revised Public Procurement Directives (2014/24/EU) explicitly authorize the inclusion of environmental and social criteria in procurement decisions, removing a longstanding legal barrier. The subsequent EU Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria and the emerging EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) further strengthened the legal and policy foundation for circular purchasing requirements.

Programme Design

Amsterdam's Circular Procurement Programme was structured around four pillars, each targeting different procurement categories with tailored circular criteria.

Pillar 1: Infrastructure and Construction focused on the city's largest spending category, accounting for approximately EUR 1.4 billion annually. Circular criteria included mandatory minimum recycled content (30% for concrete, 20% for asphalt), requirements for design-for-disassembly in new structures, material passports for all buildings exceeding EUR 5 million in contract value, and whole-life carbon assessments using the MPG (Milieuprestatie Gebouwen) methodology. Contractors were required to submit end-of-life material recovery plans as part of bid evaluation.

Pillar 2: Information Technology and Electronics targeted EUR 180 million in annual spending on devices, infrastructure, and services. Requirements included minimum product lifespans (5 years for laptops, 7 years for servers), mandatory take-back and refurbishment clauses, preference for certified refurbished equipment (meeting TCO Certified or equivalent standards), and restrictions on products containing substances of very high concern (SVHCs) listed under REACH regulation.

Pillar 3: Office Furnishings and Textiles covered EUR 85 million in spending on furniture, workwear, and cleaning textiles. Criteria required products designed for repair and remanufacturing, leasing models (product-as-a-service) as the default procurement approach for furniture, minimum post-consumer recycled fiber content for textiles (50% by weight), and supplier obligations for end-of-use collection and material recovery.

Pillar 4: Mobility and Fleet addressed EUR 240 million in vehicle and mobility service procurement. Circular criteria focused on fleet electrification (100% zero-emission by 2025 for passenger vehicles), battery second-life and recycling provisions, tire retreading requirements, and vehicle-sharing optimization to reduce total fleet size.

Each pillar assigned weighting to circular criteria within the overall bid evaluation framework. The programme mandated that circular criteria receive a minimum of 20% weight in tender evaluation, alongside price (typically 40 to 50%), quality and service levels (20 to 30%), and social criteria (5 to 10%).

Implementation Timeline

The programme rolled out in three phases. Phase 1 (2020 to 2021) focused on building internal capacity, training 340 procurement officers, developing circular criteria templates for 28 product categories, and piloting circular requirements in 15 tenders with combined value of EUR 120 million. Phase 2 (2022 to 2023) expanded circular criteria to all new tenders exceeding EUR 500,000, established a dedicated Circular Procurement Support Desk within the municipal organization, and launched a supplier engagement programme reaching 600 companies. Phase 3 (2024 to 2025) extended requirements to smaller tenders, introduced more stringent criteria for priority categories, and implemented digital material passport systems for construction projects.

Measured Outcomes

By December 2025, the programme had generated comprehensive performance data across all four pillars.

Coverage and adoption: 58% of total procurement value (EUR 2.03 billion) incorporated at least one circular criterion, exceeding the 50% target. However, coverage varied significantly by pillar: infrastructure achieved 72% coverage, IT achieved 61%, furnishings achieved 84%, and mobility achieved 43%. The mobility shortfall reflected the limited availability of zero-emission heavy vehicles and the longer replacement cycles for fleet assets.

Material impact: Construction projects under circular criteria diverted an estimated 47,000 tonnes of material from demolition waste streams into reuse or high-value recycling in 2024 alone. Recycled content in municipal concrete averaged 34%, exceeding the 30% minimum. The IT programme extended average device lifespans from 3.8 years to 5.2 years, reducing annual e-waste generation by approximately 22 tonnes and avoiding EUR 4.2 million in new equipment purchases.

Cost effects: Total cost of ownership analysis revealed mixed results. Circular construction procurement increased initial contract values by 3 to 7% compared to conventional approaches, driven primarily by design-for-disassembly requirements and material passport documentation costs. However, lifecycle cost analysis showed net savings of 8 to 12% over 30-year building lifespans when residual material value and reduced demolition waste costs were included. IT procurement using refurbished equipment delivered immediate savings of 25 to 40% on unit costs, though higher maintenance and earlier replacement of some refurbished components partially offset these savings. Furniture-as-a-service contracts increased annual expenditure by approximately 15% compared to outright purchase, but eliminated disposal costs and provided greater flexibility for workspace reconfiguration.

Supplier response: The programme catalyzed measurable changes in the regional supply base. A 2025 survey of 420 suppliers who had participated in circular tenders found that 67% had modified products or services specifically to meet Amsterdam's requirements. Thirty-eight percent reported that Amsterdam's criteria influenced their offerings to other customers. However, 44% of surveyed suppliers indicated that meeting circular requirements increased their costs, with 28% reporting cost increases exceeding 10%.

Carbon impact: The municipality commissioned an independent lifecycle assessment of circular procurement's climate effects, completed by CE Delft in late 2025. The assessment estimated that circular criteria reduced procurement-associated greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 18% (92,000 tonnes CO2-equivalent) relative to a conventional procurement baseline for the 2024 calendar year. Construction materials reuse accounted for 55% of emission reductions, extended IT lifespans for 20%, and fleet electrification for 18%.

What Worked

Standardized criteria templates dramatically reduced the burden on individual procurement officers. Rather than requiring each buyer to develop circular specifications from scratch, the programme provided category-specific templates with pre-validated legal language, measurable criteria, and suggested evaluation weightings. Procurement officers reported that templates reduced tender preparation time for circular elements by 60 to 70%.

The dedicated support desk proved essential for resolving the novel legal and technical questions that circular procurement generates. Between 2022 and 2025, the desk handled over 2,400 queries from procurement officers, with the most common topics including legal permissibility of specific circular criteria under EU procurement law, methods for verifying supplier claims about recycled content, and approaches for comparing lifecycle costs across fundamentally different procurement models (purchase versus lease versus service).

Early supplier engagement before formal tender processes helped align market offerings with circular requirements. Pre-market consultations, conducted 6 to 12 months before major tenders, allowed suppliers to understand forthcoming requirements, raise feasibility concerns, and begin product modifications. The programme conducted 45 formal pre-market consultations between 2021 and 2025, reaching an estimated 1,200 unique supplier organizations.

Political commitment from Amsterdam's city council provided the mandate necessary to absorb short-term cost increases and procurement timeline extensions. Council members received quarterly progress reports and publicly championed the programme, creating accountability that sustained momentum through implementation challenges.

What Did Not Work

Verification of circular claims emerged as the programme's most significant operational challenge. Suppliers' self-reported recycled content percentages, product lifespan claims, and end-of-life recovery commitments proved difficult to verify independently. A 2024 audit of 32 construction material suppliers found that 9 (28%) had overstated recycled content by more than 5 percentage points. The municipality lacked the laboratory capacity and technical expertise to conduct routine material testing, and third-party certification infrastructure for circular claims remained underdeveloped.

Product-as-a-service models encountered resistance from municipal finance departments. Leasing arrangements shifted expenditure from capital budgets to operating budgets, creating budget classification challenges. Multi-year service contracts also conflicted with annual budget approval cycles and introduced financial commitments that constrained future procurement flexibility. By 2025, only 35% of eligible furniture procurement had transitioned to service models, well below the 80% target.

Small and medium enterprise (SME) participation declined during the programme's expansion phases. While large suppliers had the resources to invest in circular product development and certification, smaller firms struggled to meet documentation requirements. SME participation in circular tenders dropped from 42% to 31% between 2021 and 2024, prompting the programme to introduce simplified criteria tracks for contracts below EUR 200,000.

Material passport interoperability remained an unresolved challenge. Despite mandating material passports for major construction projects, the absence of a universally adopted data standard meant that passports from different projects used incompatible formats, limiting their utility for future material recovery. The city adopted the Madaster platform as its preferred passport system, but this created vendor dependency and excluded materials documented on alternative platforms.

Transferable Lessons

Amsterdam's experience offers several findings relevant to other municipalities, utilities, and large institutional buyers considering circular procurement adoption.

First, the 20% minimum weighting for circular criteria in bid evaluation proved to be the threshold below which circular requirements had negligible effect on supplier behavior. When circular criteria carried less than 15% weight, suppliers could win tenders without meaningfully addressing circularity. The programme's data suggests that 20 to 30% weighting drives genuine product and service innovation without excessively constraining competition or inflating costs beyond manageable levels.

Second, lifecycle cost analysis is essential but methodologically challenging. The programme developed standardized lifecycle costing templates incorporating residual material value, disposal cost avoidance, and maintenance projections. These templates required significant upfront investment in development and training but proved indispensable for justifying circular procurement decisions that appeared more expensive on a first-cost basis.

Third, digital infrastructure for tracking material flows, verifying circular claims, and managing product-as-a-service contracts requires dedicated investment and standardization. Amsterdam estimates that digital systems (material passports, asset tracking, lifecycle databases) consumed approximately EUR 8 million over the programme's first five years, representing roughly 0.05% of total procurement value.

Fourth, collaboration between municipal governments accelerates adoption and reduces duplication. Amsterdam co-founded the Circular Procurement Alliance with Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, and Eindhoven in 2023, enabling shared criteria development, joint supplier engagement, and coordinated market signaling. The alliance now includes 14 Dutch municipalities representing EUR 12 billion in combined annual procurement.

Current Status and Next Steps

As of early 2026, Amsterdam has committed to increasing circular procurement coverage to 70% of total value by 2028 and introducing mandatory whole-life carbon budgets for all construction projects exceeding EUR 10 million. The city is also piloting blockchain-based material provenance verification in partnership with three construction material suppliers, aiming to address the verification challenges that have constrained programme credibility. The European Commission has cited Amsterdam's programme as a reference model in its updated Green Public Procurement guidance, and delegations from 22 European cities visited Amsterdam in 2025 to study the programme's design and outcomes.

Sources

• City of Amsterdam. (2025). Circular Procurement Programme: Five-Year Performance Report 2020-2025. Amsterdam: Gemeente Amsterdam.
• CE Delft. (2025). Lifecycle Assessment of Circular Procurement Impact: Amsterdam Municipality Case Study. Delft: CE Delft.
• Ellen MacArthur Foundation. (2024). Universal Circular Economy Policy Goals: Public Procurement. Cowes: Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
• European Commission. (2025). EU Green Public Procurement Criteria: Updated Guidance for Circular Economy Integration. Brussels: EC Publications Office.
• Netherlands Enterprise Agency. (2025). Dutch Circular Economy Progress Monitor 2025. The Hague: RVO.
• Platform CB'23. (2025). Material Passports: Implementation Guide for Dutch Construction Projects. Delft: Platform CB'23.
• OECD. (2024). Public Procurement for a Circular Economy: Practices and Lessons from OECD Countries. Paris: OECD Publishing.