Why it’s time for Procurement to move away from a linear model

As pressure to act on sustainability increases from investors, regulators, consumers, and the accelerating climate crisis, businesses are stepping up their ESG commitments. Many are making impressive progress through innovation, leadership, technology, and data.

However, a critical gap is emerging. While sustainability strategies become more ambitious, day-to-day operations and procurement processes often remain rooted in linear business models. This disconnect prevents organisations from realising the full value of their circularity ambitions.

Below, we explore why traditional procurement is holding back sustainability, what a circular procurement model looks like, and how businesses can transition to a more integrated, resource-efficient approach.

The problem: procurement is still operating in a linear system

In many organisations, procurement functions sit in silos, separated from sustainability and operational teams. This structure creates a hierarchy of priorities focused almost entirely on:

• Cost minimisation

• Commercial negotiation

• Functional specification

While these priorities are important, they rarely align with the triple bottom line of economic, environmental, and social value.

This isn’t a failure of procurement teams. It is the by-product of legacy structures that divide responsibility and prevent a shared approach to resource use, waste prevention, and lifecycle thinking.

Why linear procurement undermines sustainability goals

Even when procurement teams attempt to integrate sustainability considerations, they often lack visibility across the full lifecycle of the products and services being purchased.

This results in challenges such as:

• Buying equipment that cannot be disassembled or recycled

• Procuring materials incompatible with existing circular systems

• Selecting products based solely on function and price, not environmental impact

• Missed opportunities for reuse, repair, and secondary material markets

In many cases, procurement unintentionally locks businesses into high-waste, high-carbon pathways, even while sustainability teams push hard in the opposite direction.

The solution: move to a circular procurement model

To resolve this, businesses must evolve their procurement practices from linear decision-making to circular procurement, where decisions support resource efficiency, reuse, and long-term value creation.

This shift involves linking procurement directly with:

• Operational teams

• Waste and resource management teams

• Sustainability leads

• Data and reporting teams

Many businesses are now creating roles such as Resource Directors to lead this integrated approach and ensure procurement decisions support the entire system, not just the initial purchase.

What circular procurement enables

Circular procurement aligns purchasing choices with the organisation’s wider circularity strategy. This makes it possible to:

1. Design for disassembly and reuse

Choosing products with modular components and recyclable materials.

2. Improve waste prevention and segregation

Embedding systems that maximise material recovery from day one.

3. Use data to understand material impacts

Analysing the environmental footprint of resources before procurement.

4. Support governance and compliance demands

Including CSRD (in force from 2024), Extended Producer Responsibility, and ISO standards.

5. Improve cost-efficiency over the long term

Reducing wasted resources, avoiding hidden lifecycle costs, and optimising value recovery.

Circular procurement replaces short-term cost savings with long-term, system-wide value.

Reconomy’s role in supporting circular procurement

Businesses do not need to navigate this transition alone. Reconomy supports organisations across the entire value chain to build circular, transparent, and commercially effective systems.

Our support includes:

• Data management and analytics
  Enabling accurate resource mapping and lifecycle analysis.

• Regulatory compliance
  Supporting organisations operating under new EU CSRD and global ESG standards.

• Operational infrastructure
  From collection and segregation to reuse, recycling, and recovery.

• End-to-end circular strategies
  Helping organisations link procurement, sustainability, and commercial goals.

Through a tech-enabled, people-powered approach, Reconomy helps organisations shift from linear purchasing to closed-loop resource ecosystems that deliver measurable environmental and economic value.

Final thoughts: procurement must lead the circular transition

Businesses that continue relying on linear procurement risk rising costs, compliance pressures, and resource volatility. Those that embrace circular procurement unlock:

• Lower waste and operational costs

• Improved ESG performance

• Stronger supply chain resilience

• Better alignment with net-zero and CSRD commitments

• Long-term commercial growth through resource efficiency

Procurement isn’t just a purchasing function. It is a powerful driver of circular transformation.

Reconomy is here to help organisations make that shift with confidence.