Shaping the Future of Environment and Natural Resource Security

The report argues that institutional purchasing power—representing up to 30% of GDP in some developing countries—is a strategic lever for driving circularity. It outlines two main pillars for implementation: promoting circular supply chains through specific tender criteria and product lifetime extension, and adopting new business models such as product-service systems and supplier take-back schemes. The document provides global case studies and recommends a systemic, iterative approach to procurement, emphasizing the need for political leadership, lifecycle costing, and early supplier engagement to scale these practices.

• Public procurement represents a significant portion of economic activity, averaging 12% of GDP in OECD countries and reaching up to 30% of GDP in many developing countries, providing a powerful mechanism to drive markets toward sustainability.
• Circular procurement is a subset of sustainable procurement that specifically focuses on closing energy and material loops and maintaining value throughout the supply chain via reuse and remanufacturing.
• The report identifies two primary pillars for embedding circularity: the first involves procuring circular products using criteria like recycled content and recyclability; the second involves shifting from ownership to access through product-service systems (PSS), rental/leasing, and supplier take-back models.
• Lifecycle costing (LCC) is a critical enabler that reveals the cost-effectiveness of circular solutions by accounting for purchase price, operating costs, end-of-life costs, and externalities, the latter of which are estimated to exceed $7 trillion annually in the linear economy.
• Case studies demonstrate tangible impacts of circular procurement: the Rijkswaterstaat in the Netherlands saved nearly 9,000 tonnes of CO2 over a 50-year infrastructure lifetime; the City of Ghent improved the Belgian market for eco-friendly cleaning products; and a Brazilian initiative for recycled notebooks saved 8 million litres of water and supported 454 waste pickers.
• Successful global adoption of circular procurement is driven by top-down political leadership, supportive legislative frameworks (such as EU Directive 2014/24/EU), and the professionalization of procurement functions to move beyond transactional processes.

APA

World Economic Forum (2018). Shaping the Future of Environment and Natural Resource Security. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Environment_Team/40049_Shaping_Future_Environment_Natural_Resource_Security_report_2018.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Shaping the Future of Environment and Natural Resource Security. 2018. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Environment_Team/40049_Shaping_Future_Environment_Natural_Resource_Security_report_2018.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Shaping the Future of Environment and Natural Resource Security |date=January 2018 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Environment_Team/40049_Shaping_Future_Environment_Natural_Resource_Security_report_2018.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2018shaping, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Shaping the Future of Environment and Natural Resource Security}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2018}, month = jan, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Environment_Team/40049_Shaping_Future_Environment_Natural_Resource_Security_report_2018.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }