Barriers to adopting circular procurement in the construction industry: The way forward

Abstract

Circular Economy (CE) is a necessary intervention for enabling resource efficiency, energy conservation, waste minimization, and sustainability within the construction industry (CI). Among its many facets, circular procurement (CP) is a nascent concept that enables CE in CI. Despite the extensive literature and review studies conducted on CE and its intricacies, critical studies documenting the barriers to the adoption of CP within the CI remain scarce. This study systematically reviews the existing literature on CP in CI retrieved from the Scopus database. A systematic literature review was conducted on 46 shortlisted articles published between 2010-2023 using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol, and the key barriers to the adoption of CP in CI were identified. The results reveal both hard barriers (HB), such as lack of circular design and production, lack of reverse logistics, lack of standardization, lack of reliable information management, and lack of profitable business models, and soft barriers (SB), such as lack of stakeholder engagement, lack of trust on CP routes, resistance to change, perceived performance issues and lack of collaboration as impediments to adoption of CP in CI. Further, the measures and strategies to mitigate the identified barriers were also identified from existing literature that are presented in the current study. Finally, a conceptual framework to facilitate the adoption of CP in CI is presented as a way forward to enable the transition from traditional to circular practices.