Why Procurement Is the True Engine of the Circular Economy

How ISO 20400 is quietly reshaping global circular value chains

For years, the circular economy has been discussed primarily through the lenses of product design, recycling technologies and material innovation. While all of these are critical, they often miss the single business function that ultimately determines whether circularity succeeds at scale: PROCUREMENT.

This is why ISO 20400 – Sustainable Procurement is emerging as one of the most powerful enablers of circular transformation. Procurement is where strategy meets execution: where sustainability ambitions become contractual requirements, and where circular principles enter the daily mechanics of business.

While the ISO 59000 family defines the principles, business model transition and measurement of circular economy, ISO 20400 defines how buying behavior reshapes markets and supply chains. Every procurement decision influences which materials are used, which suppliers scale, and which innovations survive beyond pilot stage. In this sense, procurement does not simply support the circular economy — it actively creates the demand that makes it viable.

Traditional procurement optimizes for price and speed. Circular procurement shifts the focus to total lifecycle value, durability, recycled and bio-based content, traceability and end-of-life recovery. Through this shift, procurement evolves from a cost-control function into a strategic value-creation engine.

This alignment becomes even stronger when procurement is linked to certification and traceability schemes such as ISCC PLUS and EN 15343. These schemes verify what is being purchased; ISO 20400 defines how procurement must be structured to demand and manage those verified circular attributes. Together, they form the backbone of credible, auditable circular supply chains.

Many circular strategies fail because procurement practices remain linear: supplier qualification criteria, buyer KPIs and contracts are not adapted to circular objectives. ISO 20400 closes this gap by embedding sustainability and circularity into tendering, supplier evaluation, contract management and performance monitoring.

In a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape — with EPR schemes, recycled-content mandates, the EU Packaging Regulation, Ecodesign and CSRD — circular procurement is no longer optional. It is a core compliance and risk-management function.

The circular economy will not be built by designers alone. It will be built by buyers.

Intertek supports organisations in embedding ISO 20400 into their procurement systems, aligning purchasing with circular economy frameworks and integrating certification and traceability schemes to build credible, future-ready circular supply chains.

For more information visit: 
ISCC Certification | Sustainability Certification System
EN 15343:2007 Certification | Conformity Assessment and Certification of Products with Recycled Plastic Content
ISO 20400 Sustainable Procurement | Intertek Assurance Services