CIRCULAR SHIFT

Circular Shift (CS) will accelerate the circular economy (CE) by scaling up circular procurement (CP) practices of phones, laptops & workwear, as examples of frequently procured products in public organisations in NL, BE, FR, DE and IE. 

CS partners will widely implement value chain collaboration (VCC) methods after piloting it in 8 procurement cases, to promote circular strategies (e.g. repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing), within the legal procurement framework. They will help to realise the organisational change and tools needed to make those practices the standard for all product groups, on all department levels in 60 procuring organisations (partners and external network). 

CS partners have committed to producing strategies for internal commitment and measuring impact, an VCC action plan and a joint training scheme to overcome the 3 main barriers hindering the mainstreaming of CP: 

1. Products can only become circular when the full value chain is. Procuring organisations are in a unique position to facilitate intensified coordination between value chain actors on materials, design, production, (re)use & recycling to close material loops. 
2. A lack of organisation-wide commitment to CP. It is crucial that all internal actors (e.g. procurement, finance, and management of procuring organisations) have knowledge, skills & motivation to adopt CP procedures. 
3. Procuring organisations cannot capture the benefits of CP as insights & metrics on tangible impact from circular products is unavailable. They will jointly build on the outcome of prior CP pilots & the consortium experience, by:

• • introducing & implementing a “transition broker role” to facilitate internal & external commitment; 
  • involving all actors in procuring organisations to implement new working practices; 
  • building strong VCC to facilitate new business models tested in pilot actions; and 
  • facilitating impact monitoring through developing & testing a comprehensive decision-making framework.