Concrete Europe position to leverage public procurement to stimulate lead market for low carbon cement and concrete construction

Concrete Europe believes that public procurement should drive demand for low-carbon and circular construction solutions across the full value chain, including aggregates, cement, concrete and other construction products.

Construction accounts for around 23% of total public procurement, while 31% of cement use is linked to public construction procurement. This gives public authorities a key role in creating long-term demand signals that support industry investment in decarbonisation technologies, such as carbon capture, alternative fuels and low-clinker cements.

However, despite EU procurement rules allowing criteria beyond price, 55% of procedures still rely on the lowest price as the only award criterion. Environmental and social criteria remain underused due to weak enforcement, limited capacity and inconsistent guidance.

From 2030, the CPR product-level GWP indicator and the EPBD building-level life-cycle GWP requirements will provide important market signals. Yet public procurement must already act before 2030 to create demand at scale and support investment decisions across the construction products industry.

This is a key window of opportunity to make public procurement a driver of low-carbon and circular public construction projects.

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