Environment Agency Aligns Purchasing with Circular Economy Goals Through Accreditation Landscape Review​

The Environment Agency has a sustainability strategy, eMission 2030, designed to improve the sustainability of the organisation to the period up to 2030. ​

Their strategy is currently being refreshed, which places a greater emphasis on ‘adopting circular approaches’ within the organisation to reduce overall consumption of resources. ​

To enable this, the strategy includes a target to increase the purchase of ‘circular accredited’ products / materials. This includes resources that are a product of circular systems and resources that are designed to be re-circulated. ​

Action Sustainability undertook a research task to gain an understanding of the landscape of circular accreditation / labelling schemes that are relevant to the Environment Agency and the products / materials they procure.​

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Action Sustainability researched varying circular accreditation / labelling schemes using the following criteria: ​

• Scheme background and scope:​
  • Origin of the scheme & applicability in the UK​
  • Examples of the categories or types of products covered by the scheme​
• Sustainability focus areas:​
  • The sustainability issues addressed by the scope of the scheme (e.g. embedded carbon, material health, biodiversity)​
  • The extent to which the origin, sourcing and manufacture of the resource is considered by the accreditation scheme​
• Verification and post-use considerations:​
  • The assurance processes in place to validate circularity claims​
  • The extent to which the circulation of the resource after use is considered​
• Practicality and effectiveness:​
  • The availability and access to systems to enable circularity after use​
  • Evaluation of benefits and weaknesses of the scheme​

Action Sustainability’s work provided the Environment Agency with an overview of the different accreditation / labelling schemes available for the key products and materials they procure. ​

The in-depth criteria allowed for a robust understanding of each of the schemes, as well as associated assurances that validated the circularity claims.​

In addition to researching circular schemes, Action Sustainability provided an overview of ‘whole service’ solutions covering ‘supply’ and ‘providing products as a service’. These examples provided insight into varying organisations who are offering these services, within the Environment Agency’s key consumption areas.​

Overall, this research project will support the Environment Agency with purchasing practices, by directing purchasing and contracts toward resources that are circular by design. Additionally, this will support the Environment Agency to achieve their target to increase their purchase of ‘circular accredited’ products / materials.​