Holcim: Procurement Crucial to Driving Circular Change

A growing number of construction decision-makers are ready to pay more for materials and services with credible circular credentials.

Research from Holcim UK highlights the shift in industry expectations as procurement increasingly favours suppliers able to prove circularity through robust, third-party verification.

Holcim is now urging both industry and government to introduce mandatory certification standards to ensure circular procurement strategies are transparent, consistent and evidence-based.

Circularity moves to the centre of procurement

Holcim UK, a business focused on sustainable building materials, partners with customers across the supply chain to deliver lower-carbon, circular construction projects.

The company is targeting net zero by 2050, embedding decarbonisation and circular practices across its operations. One of its key circular innovations is ECOCycle, a product range that transforms construction and demolition waste into new materials.

Holcim's Circularity Survey captures the views of 500 UK-based construction professionals, including architects, building contractors and merchant hauliers. It provides insight into how procurement strategies are evolving to reflect stronger sustainability goals, with circularity becoming a core commercial consideration.

The survey is intended to help both government and industry better understand the obstacles preventing wider adoption of circular construction. It also supports Holcim’s broader aim to establish a closed-loop supply chain, where construction waste is reused rather than discarded.

"These findings show a clear shift in the construction industry: circular credentials are no longer a ‘nice to have’ – they are fast becoming a decisive factor in procurement decisions," says Kaziwe Siame Kaulule, Managing Director Aggregates & Construction Demolition Materials at Holcim UK. "Sustainable materials are moving from the margins to the mainstream."

Kaziwe adds that Holcim’s ECOCycle range "turns waste materials into new building products, embedding circularity at the point of manufacture". For procurement teams, this means circularity is inherent to the material itself, not an external add-on.

Barriers remain

While interest in circularity is growing, Holcim’s research shows construction leaders face several barriers when trying to apply circular procurement strategies across projects.

The study finds that although local authorities, large companies and housing associations are updating procurement policy to favour suppliers with strong circularity claims, the lack of clear standards makes it difficult to compare or validate offers.

To address this, Holcim calls for more formal frameworks for assessing circular performance. It recommends government and the wider construction industry introduce strict verification methods and make third-party certification mandatory.

"Individual products will not be enough," Kaziwe says. "We need to see government and industry introducing robust verification methods, third-party certification and clear standards to ensure circular credentials are evidence-based and without room for ambiguity."

This reflects a broader concern across the construction value chain that without clear definitions or certification, greenwashing becomes harder to detect. Organisations risk making claims they cannot substantiate, which could undermine sector-wide sustainability targets.

The case for stronger standards

The findings of Holcim's survey suggest that circularity is no longer viewed as an optional benefit but as a defining factor in supplier selection. Businesses that can offer evidence of circular practices across their operations, services and products will gain competitive advantage.

Holcim is urging public and private procurement leaders to place greater emphasis on policy alignment and introduce stronger audit mechanisms to test the claims made by suppliers.

It recommends embedding accountability measures across supply chains to prevent greenwashing and to accelerate the shift towards closed-loop construction models.

As more clients, contractors and stakeholders adopt circularity as a procurement priority, the role of certification becomes central. Verified circular performance not only supports sustainable outcomes, it also brings consistency and trust to procurement decisions.

Holcim's research indicates that the appetite for circularity is no longer confined to sustainability teams – it is a growing priority for architects, engineers, project managers and commercial decision-makers alike.

With construction responsible for high volumes of carbon and material waste, efforts to standardise circular procurement are increasingly urgent. Whether through recycled content, material reuse or waste-to-resource models like ECOCycle, the sector now needs clear, enforced rules to track, prove and scale circular success.