Circular Public Procurement and Ecolabels: TERI’s WCEF2026 Session Examines India’s Circular Economy

Circular Public Procurement and Ecolabels: TERI’s WCEF2026 Session Examines India’s Circular Economy

KAKALI DAS

TERI’s WCEF2026 session examines how Ecomark, standards and government purchasing can work together to promote sustainable consumption and production.

What governments choose to buy can influence what companies produce. With public procurement accounting for a significant share of economic activity, government purchasing has the potential to do more than meet administrative needs. It can create demand for products that are durable, repairable, resource-efficient and environmentally preferable.

How to use that purchasing power to advance a circular economy was at the heart of a World Circular Economy Forum 2026 (WCEF2026) Accelerator Session on “Circular Public Procurement and Ecolabels”, organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) on 18 September 2026.

The 90-minute session brought together policymakers, standards and procurement experts, and representatives of international organisations to examine how India’s Ecomark, product standards and public procurement systems can be connected to accelerate sustainable consumption and production.

The session began with welcome remarks by Dr Shailly Kedia, Senior Fellow and Director, TERI, followed by a framing presentation by Mr Pujeet Jha, Research Associate, TERI. The discussion was chaired by Mr R. R. Rashmi, Distinguished Fellow and Programme Director, TERI.

The panel included Mr Virendra Singh, Scientist E, Director and Head, Environment and Ecology Department, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS); Mr Saubhagya Dixit, Scientist D, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB); Mr Anil Kumar, Deputy Secretary, Procurement Policy Division, Ministry of Finance; Ms Gina Torregroza, Sustainable Public Procurement Lead, UN Environment Programme (UNEP); and Ms Barbara Ziolkowska, Senior Procurement Specialist and Procurement Team Lead for Europe and South Caucasus, World Bank.

Opening the discussion, Nameeta Prasad, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), who is spearheading the Ecomark initiative, highlighted the significance of the recently re-notified Ecomark Rules. Ecomark, she noted, can serve as an important information instrument connecting product-level environmental information with wider circular economy and market-transition objectives. It can help promote environmentally preferable products, support the objectives of Mission LiFE and improve transparency for consumers.

But information alone does not necessarily transform markets.The session repeatedly returned to the question of how an environmental label can influence an actual purchasing decision. Reliable criteria, certification and testing may establish credibility, but manufacturers also need a market for environmentally preferable products. This is where public procurement becomes important.

In his framing presentation, Pujeet Jha pointed to the scale of government purchasing in India and its potential to influence markets. He noted that public procurement is linked to a substantial share of India’s economic activity, while the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) has emerged as a major platform for government purchasing.

Globally, procurement also has significant environmental implications. The scale of government purchasing therefore gives procurement policy the potential to influence production patterns, product design and resource use.The challenge is to connect the information provided by ecolabels with the purchasing power of public institutions.

Jha traced the country’s long history of product certification and environmental information systems, pointing to AGMARK, introduced in 1937, and the original Ecomark Scheme, launched in 1991.The early Ecomark initiative, however, emerged at a time when awareness of green products was limited and there was little market demand for them. Understanding of life-cycle costing was also less developed. Since then, India has built several systems that could potentially support a stronger circular procurement framework.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency’s Star Rating demonstrated how government policy and procurement could help establish a strong association between a product label and purchasing decisions. The Government e-Marketplace, launched in 2016, created a large digital procurement platform for goods and services. The General Financial Rules (GFR) were subsequently strengthened to incorporate aspects of sustainable procurement.

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The Ecomark framework itself was revised in 2024, with subsequent developments proposing additional environmental parameters and product categories, including considerations relating to recycled content, Extended Producer Responsibility, life-cycle aspects and digital verification.The question, therefore, is not whether India possesses individual instruments. It is how these instruments can be made to work together.

For circular procurement to work, environmental claims must be measurable and verifiable.Virendra Singh of BIS emphasised the importance of standards for attributes such as durability, repairability and recycled content. Rather than relying on broad claims such as “eco-friendly” or “sustainable”, standards can define specific performance requirements and establish how those requirements should be demonstrated.

Verification may involve testing, inspection or traceability and chain-of-custody systems where conventional testing is not sufficient.He pointed to examples involving recycled plastics, fly-ash-based construction products and cement standards, where requirements relating to recycled or alternative materials can be accompanied by appropriate testing methods.

Durability is another important component of circularity. A product that lasts longer can reduce the need for repeated replacement and the associated consumption of raw materials.Repairability is similarly important because products that cannot be repaired can become waste much earlier than necessary.BIS’s work on standards, together with initiatives such as the Ministry of Consumer Affairs’ Right to Repair portal, represents part of a broader effort to extend product life and reduce resource pressure.

Saubhagya Dixit of CPCBexplained that the credibility of Ecomark depends on criteria that are both product-specific and verifiable.Environmental requirements for a paper product, for example, cannot simply be transferred to an air conditioner or an electronic product. Different products have different environmental impacts and different points in their life cycles where intervention can make a difference.

Verification mechanisms can include field inspections, sampling and testing, and comparison of input and output data where an established test method is unavailable.The objective is to ensure that Ecomark functions as a trusted environmental signal rather than a self-declared green claim.

But credibility alone cannot guarantee market uptake.That brought the discussion to one of the most important practical questions of the session – Is the market ready? An environmental requirement in a government tender is meaningful only when suppliers can realistically meet it.

The Ministry of Finance perspective highlighted that India’s procurement framework already contains provisions that can accommodate sustainability considerations.The GFR provides for consideration of life-cycle costs, environmental characteristics in tender evaluation, maintenance arrangements and buy-back mechanisms. The framework also includes provisions supporting procurement from MSMEs. However, there is currently no blanket requirement for government agencies to procure Ecomark-certified products.

This distinction is significant.Before a label becomes a mandatory procurement requirement, procurement authorities need to know how many manufacturers can meet the relevant criteria, what production capacity exists, what the products cost and whether adequate competition will remain.

The issue becomes particularly important for micro, small and medium enterprises, which may face greater difficulties in absorbing testing, certification and compliance costs.Supporting MSMEs through technical assistance, testing facilities and certification support could therefore be essential if circular procurement is to become widespread without excluding smaller producers.

Gina Torregroza of UNEP offered an international perspective on how ecolabels can be incorporated into public procurement.Her central message was that procurement authorities should focus first on the environmental performance they require, rather than simply requiring one particular label. A credible ecolabel can then serve as one means of demonstrating compliance, alongside equivalent forms of evidence where appropriate. This approach can help maintain transparency and competition while still allowing environmental criteria to influence purchasing decisions.

She also stressed that circularity cannot be reduced to a single attribute such as recycled content.A product with high recycled content does not automatically have the lowest environmental impact. Procurement criteria may also need to consider its expected lifetime, durability, repairability, maintenance, energy and resource consumption, possibilities for reuse or remanufacturing, dismantling and end-of-life management.Life-cycle assessment can help establish appropriate environmental criteria, while life-cycle costing can help procurement authorities account for costs beyond the initial purchase price.

For UNEP, the process should therefore involve identifying priority product categories, establishing credible criteria, assessing market readiness, engaging suppliers and translating the requirements into practical tender specifications.

The session also examined experiences from Asia and Europe. Examples from South Korea, China and Japan demonstrated how ecolabels can gain greater influence when linked to government procurement plans, targets, preference lists and reporting mechanisms. European systems such as Germany’s BlueAngel, the Nordic Swan and the EU Ecolabel provided further examples of institutional arrangements involving defined criteria, verification and links with procurement.

The common lesson was that an ecolabel is more powerful when it becomes part of a broader procurement system.Simply placing a label on a product does not create a market for it. Procurement rules, purchasing targets, supplier capacity and verification mechanisms all influence whether environmental information translates into actual demand.

Barbara Ziolkowskaof the World Bank described mechanisms already available within the World Bank’s procurement framework for incorporating sustainability and circularity.She highlighted rated criteria, which allow non-price attributes such as quality and sustainability to form part of tender evaluation. The framework also provides for life-cycle costing, particularly where operation and maintenance costs over the life of an asset are significant.

Another important component is market engagement.Before major procurements, governments can engage suppliers to understand what the market can realistically provide and whether proposed requirements relating to durability, repairability or recycled content are achievable.

For Ziolkowska, the larger challenge is therefore not necessarily the absence of policy provisions but implementation capacity.Procurement teams need the skills and tools to translate broad sustainability principles into measurable tender requirements and transparent evaluation methodologies.She identified stronger market analysis, standardised life-cycle costing tools and clear methodologies for evaluating circularity as important priorities.

One of the practical pathways discussed during the session was greater integration of Ecomark with GeM.GeM already provides digital tools for identifying and filtering products according to various characteristics. Adding Ecomark as a visible identifier or filter could make environmentally preferable products easier for government buyers to identify.

A gradual approach could then focus on selected priority product categories where market readiness is relatively strong.Rather than introducing an immediate blanket requirement, procurement could progressively increase demand for products meeting defined circularity criteria while simultaneously supporting manufacturers and MSMEs in obtaining certification.

Digital verification could strengthen the system further. QR-based verification, for example, could allow buyers to confirm certification and relevant product information instead of relying solely on environmental claims made by manufacturers.The discussion made clear that the transition to circular public procurement will not depend on a single label, rule or institution.

Ecomark can provide information. BIS can establish standards. CPCB can support environmental verification. GFR can provide procurement provisions. GeM can provide the marketplace. Financial and technical support can help manufacturers, particularly MSMEs, meet the requirements.The missing link is making these systems function as part of a coherent market mechanism.

The experience of other countries suggests that public procurement can help create that missing demand, but only when environmental criteria are credible, measurable and connected to actual purchasing decisions.

For India, the revised Ecomark framework offers an opportunity to build this connection. The immediate task is likely to be identifying suitable product categories, understanding market capacity, developing robust criteria, supporting suppliers and establishing transparent methods for verification and evaluation.

The larger objective is not simply to sell more products carrying a green label.It is to ensure that the way public money is spent begins to reward products that use resources more efficiently, last longer, can be repaired, reused or recovered, and have lower environmental impacts across their life cycles.If those connections can be established, public procurement could become more than a purchasing mechanism. It could become a tool for moving India’s circular economy from policy ambition towards market transformation.

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