Transitioning from green to circular procurement in developing countries: a conceptual framework for Ghana’s construction sector

ABSTRACT

Circular procurement (CP) systems are fast evolving and recently, regarded as a ‘golden-ring’ to be leveraged in promoting the circular economy. However, it appears that the construction sector of developing countries is yet to make any significant adaptions and improvements to its existing procurement practice. In this paper, we examine the state of procurement practice in such countries for opportunities to develop and implement CP. Using case analysis from the Ghanaian context, evidence on the status quo of existing green procurement system is sought to ascertain gaps and similarities between practice, policy and targets needed for CP implementation. Qualitative methods comprising the use of secondary data and interviews with stakeholders from three public tendered projects were adopted, and results analysed to develop a conceptual framework for CP. The findings of the study reveal that government policy, circular strategy, circular sourcing and platforms are essential components that need to be developed for CP implementation. Hence, the developed framework proposes an integration of these aspects through the four-lenses of people, process, policy and technology. The output of this research provides a collective roadmap for policymakers, practitioners and academicians towards the attainment of more circular consumption patterns in emerging construction markets.

KEYWORDS:

• Circular procurement
• green procurement
• circular economy
• construction sector
• developing countries
• Ghana

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Acknowledgements

The paper forms part of a PhD research funded by the Hong Kong University Presidential Scholarship and the Research Grants Council of the HKSAR Government under the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (no. PF20-45263), currently being conducted at Department of Real Estate and Construction, The University of Hong Kong.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author, [Ababio, B. K]. The data are not publicly available due to ethical restrictions on compromising the privacy of research participants.

Correction Statement

This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2023.2234746)