Green procurement policies needed in path to net-zero

The cement manufacturing alone makes up 7% of the world’s carbon emissions.

Governments will need to put a green procurement framework in place to accelerate its efforts to achieve net-zero, a report noted.

In  a June 2022 report, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and World Economic Forum (WEF) noted that  for instance cement manufacturing alone accounted for 7% of the world’s carbon emissions. 

It added that governments and its agencies across the national, regional and local levels are responsible for 40% to 60% of concrete sales, and 20% to 30% of the industry’s revenues. 

“The public sector can lead the transition toward low-carbon concrete by shifting more rapidly to green procurement policies,” the report read in part. 

“Governments can develop regulations and business environments that encourage and, at times, mandate the procurement of low-carbon concrete and the adoption of low-carbon construction methods.”

In its Low-carbon Concrete and Construction: A review of green public procurement programmes, the BCG and WEF created a blueprint designed to reduce carbon emissions in the industry. 

The blueprint consists two major areas – the Foundation and the Procurement Policies. The foundation covers common standards for assessing carbon emissions of concrete. This includes a product database for collecting and storing information and baselines about carbon emissions. 

Procurement policies, meanwhile, cover rules for the disclosure of carbon in concrete products and projects. These policies are also necessary in setting targets for carbon emissions reduction. 

“Procurement programs should be measured and refined over time, becoming more ambitious as the technology advances for carbon capture and carbon emissions measurement, among other things,” the report also said.

Moreover, the report found that carbon emissions from public procurement are concentrated in six industries–defense and security, transportation, waste management services, construction, industrial products, and utilities. 

“A considerable proportion of public procurement’s GHG emissions can be abated at a reasonable cost,” the BCG and WEF also found. 

“We expect that greener procurement activities will raise costs by just 3% to 6% through 2050.”