board boekje web pages

112
district, and financed by Dutch bank ABN AMRO. Participants of
the communities of practice invested in particular products from
five groups: demolition and construction; office furniture; road
signs; catering; and data servers and IT business equipment. The
initiatives were pretty ambitious, mostly focusing on product
redesign, reuse and refuse. High-value recycling took less priority.
The purchasing departments were, however, reluctant to take too
many risks and usually lacked the knowledge, time and money
to help build completely new circular product chains. Moreover,
bidders needed the commitment of their CEOs and middle
managers as they could not implement circular procurement
alone; circular procurement is also something to be integrated
in the daily processes in finance, human resources, product
management and shop-floor employees. If a procurement contract
deviates from standard procedures, getting this internal support
may take some time.
Participants admitted that total cost of ownership is a key principle
in creating circular business and that new business models are
therefore needed in circular procurement. Most participants had
little experience with circular business models. However, some
provided examples of product groups that had already gained
some traction. For example, their office furniture was leased or
second-hand because making use of such services was seen as
good practice; it was often well received within the organisation
and was cheaper than buying new furniture. The same held for
workwear that was given a second life. Circular buildings stood
out as another example in which new business models were used,
notably in circular demolition and the reuse of building materials.
In catering, small-scale pilots were also introduced, for example, a
start-up that grows mushrooms from coffee grounds and another
that makes products from orange peels. These initiatives also
require a new business model.
Participants were led by the drive to improve the environmental
performance of the products and services they purchased. If a
new business model was needed to achieve this goal, participants