Circular Procurement Explained: The Future of Sustainable Event Planning

Introduction: Why Circular Procurement Matters

At The Original Cupkeeper, we’re passionate about helping events become more sustainable. Our journey began with creating an eco-friendly festival cup holder because it simply didn’t exist. But our mission extends beyond that. We aim to support eco-minded event organizers like you in creating magical experiences with minimal environmental impact.

Whenever I find tools that can enhance your sustainability efforts, I like to share them. Recently, I came across an insightful article on circular procurement. Circular procurement is about sourcing materials in a way that minimizes waste and maximizes resource efficiency—going beyond just waste management to address what enters your event in the first place.

Embracing circular procurement offers numerous benefits:

• reduce costs through reuse and recycling
• improve your event’s reputation
• influence market trends toward sustainability, and
• align with regulatory and stakeholder expectations.

By shifting to circular procurement, you can innovate while significantly reducing your environmental footprint.

Below, I’ll summarize key insights from the original article and offer a practical comparison between Cupkeeper and traditional cardboard cup holders. Let’s dive in!

Circular Procurement: Explained Clearly

Procurement is the process of sourcing and purchasing materials or services for an organization. Circular procurement is the practice of purchasing goods and services, focusing on minimising waste and maximising resource efficiency.

It’s an important concept to consider, because we tend to focus our sustainabiliy efforts on waste management. There is, however, only so much you can do by properly managing what comes out at the end. At some point, you also have to look at managing what comes in. And that’s exactly what circular procurement is all about.

There are two sides to circularity:

1. Circularity 1 – use and processing: “All products and materials should be reused (through renting, borrowing or direct-reuse) or, at minimum, be recycled or composted. This minimises residual waste that would otherwise be incinerated or landfilled.”
2. Circularity 2 – manufacturing and procurement: “All procured products and materials must either be: used items or made from previously used materials (second-hand, refurbished) or, at a minimum, made from bio-based or recycled raw materials.”

And to be truly circular, a procurement decision needs to meet both of these.

How to Get Started with Circular Procurement

I highly recommend you give the article a read, it’s very well crafted and structured so you can easily identify where you can improve your processes. Here’s a brief overview of key points.

Using a thoughtful, systematic approach can move your event closer to true circularity. This involves carefully considering what you’re bringing in and aligning procurement with your sustainability goals.

Here’s what your festival or event can do to get started:

• Evaluate your current procurement practices.
• Develop a clear circular procurement policy.
• Use practical tools, like the ITGWO decision tree (see below), to simplify decision-making.
• Regularly monitor your progress and refine your strategy.

Circular procurement can be a real game-changer on your sustainability journey. As Into the Great Wide Open has demonstrated, making thoughtful shifts in procurement can lead to impressive outcomes.

On top of those four overarching steps, the article also provides a detailed decision tree to help guide every single procurement decision you make. Basically, for every procurement decision, you can go step-by-step through the questions to see how circular any given option is.

The article itself, however, doesn’t provide a worked-out example for such a decision. So, I figured I could add value by providing one. Let’s see how our Cupkeeper measures up in terms of circularity compared to the current most prevalent choice: cardboard drink carriers.

Practical Example: Cupkeeper vs Cardboard Cup Holders

Question 1: Is this product really necessary to realize your goal?

Question 2: Do you already have something similar? Can you make it from something you have?

Question 3: Can you also borrow or rent the product?

Question 4: Can you get it 2nd hand or refurbished?

Question 5: Can you get it, but made from bio-based or recycled materials?

Question 6: Can you (or someone else) reuse it after use? “More often is better.”

Question 7: Nice. Can it be recycled or composted after many times reuse?

Results: which festival cup holder is the more circular choice?

Well, I suppose if you go through all the trouble of separating the cardboard holders, it would be considered a circular choice. But does that make it the best choice? I argue no. In this post we go over every way our Cupkeeper outperforms cardboard cup holders.

In short: your grounds remain cleaner during the event, clean-up costs are lower, fans are happier with both the convenience and design of Cupkeeper, and you can make a nice profit too – especially if you customize your own Cupkeepers to fit your brand.

Let’s go Circular!

By providing a complete example of a procurement decision, I hope this is has been a helpful addition to the original article. This approach can help you achieve amazing results for the sustainability of your event. Into the Great Wide Open (ITGWO) went from 15% circular to a whopping 80% (!) in a single year.

That clearly demonstrates that in many cases, the circular alternatives are out there. It’s just a matter of making the commitment to a circular procurement policy.

By adopting circular procurement choices, like our Cupkeeper, you’ll take big strides toward creating greener, cleaner events. Let’s commit to circular solutions together—your dedication combined with the right tools can make all the difference.