Circular procurement is a learning process: Kongsvinger’s Circular Procurement Pilot

Public procurement in Norway accounts for over NOK 500 billion annually and is responsible for more than 10% of national greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this leverage, procurement practices remain largely linear. Municipal procurement staff often lack the knowledge, tools, and confidence to integrate circular criteria into tenders. As a result, opportunities to reduce environmental impact and stimulate markets for circular products and services are missed.

The Kongsvinger Region initiated a pilot project in March 2021 to build procurement teams’ capabilities and develop concrete circular procurement criteria. Drawing from the findings of the Circle Scan Kongsvingerregion and broader European experiences, the project focuses on:

-Training local procurement officers in circular economy principles.

-Creating and testing criteria that prioritise durability, reparability, reuse, and recyclability.

-Completing a procurement process that includes these circular requirements.

The pilot uses real procurement cases to embed learning and collaboration, laying the groundwork for more systemic change.

The pilot helped position circular procurement as a practical and scalable climate strategy for municipalities. It strengthened local knowledge and brought together multiple stakeholders across the region. While still ongoing, the pilot has already:

-Developed a replicable methodology for circular procurement.

-Enabled municipalities to trial circular criteria in actual tenders.

-Increased regional alignment on circular goals.

The experience feeds into broader national and EU dialogues on green procurement, contributing lessons to initiatives such as the Big Buyers Initiative and NetZeroCities.