Raw Materials & Product Passport for Buyers

HVAC Systems: First the Circular Criteria, Then the Product Data

When purchasing HVAC systems, there are two Circonnect tools you can use. They build on each other in a logical way and help you move from qualitative requirements to quantitative ones.

Circular Criteria for HVAC Systems: What Should You Include in Your Specifications?

When procuring HVAC systems, the focus is often on the building itself. The Circular Criteria broaden that perspective to include the user, the building, and the system as a whole. You’ll consider five aspects: an integrated approach, demountability, adaptability, reuse and reuse potential, and optimization of the system’s lifespan. The criteria are qualitative and help flesh out your Statement of Requirements across three levels of ambition. They address the question of how to make your request for proposals more circular. After completing the tool, you’ll have an initial draft of your Statement of Requirements.

Raw Materials & Product Passport for Buyers: What Data Should You Request?

The GPP goes a step further and makes the data request quantitative. You determine what data to request from suppliers: exactly what you’re purchasing, where it comes from, and what its environmental impact is. This aligns with what the law requires of manufacturers, including regarding critical raw materials.

From a procurement brief to an initial actionable approach

In a workshop, you’ll walk through the tool with your procurement team, applying it to your own case study. You’ll primarily use it when preparing a request for proposals or a new contract for technical products—specifically at the stage when you can still determine what to include in the request.

Step 1: Choose your assignment and decide what you're focusing on

You select one specific procurement task and describe what you are procuring, the function it must fulfill, and its expected lifespan. You then identify up to three key objectives, such as supply security, operating costs, environmental impact, circularity, or compliance. Using the worksheet that links laws and regulations to data requirements, you select the data points that are relevant to your product.

These data points fall into three categories: what the product contains; maintenance, energy consumption, and material use throughout its lifecycle; and the resulting environmental impact. Every additional data requirement costs the market and your own organization time, so you should only request data when you know exactly what decision you’ll use it to make.

Step 2: Identify what the market can provide

You check with suppliers to determine what data is available, how it was determined, and whether it will remain up to date throughout the contract. For each data point, you record whether it is available, partially available, or missing, and what evidence supports it. This allows you to see where the market currently stands and where there is still room for improvement. This insight makes your request for proposals realistic and shows suppliers where they can innovate.

Step 3: Translate the data into your request for proposal and contract

For each data point, you determine the appropriate use: whether as market demand, an information requirement, a minimum requirement, an award criterion, a contractual agreement, or a monitoring measure. In an immature market, you start with market demands and information requirements; where performance is distinctive and comparable, you evaluate it as part of the award process.

Before the end of the product’s service life, for example, you can request a plan for dismantling and reuse. Aluminum ventilation ducts often remain untouched, hanging above the suspended ceiling for the entire lifespan of a building, even though they can easily be reused with proper return logistics.

Step 4: A framework for the next request for proposals

You’ll conclude with an initial procurement strategy covering three to five data points, with the objective, procurement action, evidence, and commitment specified for each data point. This will give you a detailed case study that serves as a framework for your next request for proposals.

Here's how you can work with us to create a Raw Materials & Product Passport for your buyers

Circonnect develops guidelines for each product group in collaboration with manufacturers and experts, which are then validated by the product group itself. In a workshop, you and your procurement team translate those guidelines into criteria for your own request for proposals and document them in your own evaluation framework. This ensures that your request for proposals is based on the same data points that manufacturers are preparing for, and that it aligns with what future legislation will require of them. Furthermore, you consistently apply the same criteria to every subsequent procurement decision.

Buyer Groups

Do you procure jointly with other organizations, for example, through a buyer group? If so, we’ll align your criteria with the data points from the guidelines, which are in line with upcoming European legislation. We did this previously for the Offshore Wind Block Allocation Decision. This way, producers receive a single, consistent market demand to drive innovation, and your criteria will remain valid even after the legislation takes effect.

Frequently asked questions

• What should I do if suppliers don't have the requested data yet?

  At the moment, that’s more the rule than the exception. For each question, note whether the answer is available, partially available, or missing. This will help you understand what the market can currently provide and which data points you should treat—for now—as market requests or information needs, rather than as strict requirements.

• Should my organization have circular procurement goals?

  If your organization has those goals, the tool helps you translate them into measurable criteria. If it doesn’t, you can use the same approach to better assess risks related to supply security, price, and origin.

• How do I ensure compliance with and monitor the terms of the contract?

  That depends on which criterion you prioritize. If you focus on the environmental impact of production, you’ll request an environmental product declaration (EPD). Agreements regarding what happens at the end of a product’s life cycle are more difficult to ensure and monitor. The market is still evolving in this area, including through projects stemming from the roadmap for climate control systems.

• How does this tool relate to the guidelines for each product group?

  The Raw Materials & Product Passport is a guideline for each product group, with measurable criteria that are partly based on European regulations. You set your own level of ambition. With the Raw Materials & Product Passport for buyers, you can start working with the same data.

• I work for a manufacturer. Can I still use the Raw Materials & Product Passport for buyers?

  This tool was developed from the buyer’s perspective. Under each Raw Material and Product Passport guideline for each product group, there is also a workspace for manufacturers that helps determine where your company can achieve the greatest gains through improvement. The first step is often to organize your bill of materials: the basic information about what goes into your product. Because both workspaces use the same criteria, as a manufacturer, you can see what information buyers will be requesting.

• I would like to work on circularity throughout my entire product chain. Are these tools useful for this purpose?

  If you want to get down to business with your supply chain partners, you can participate in a CIRCO Supply Chain Track. In this series, you’ll work together to explore opportunities for your supply chain and immediately begin formulating concrete actions.