Catalytic Procurement: How Corporations Can Lead the Green Commodity Transition

Why purchasing is key to corporate climate action and creating differentiated, low-emissions commodity markets

By Xiyuan Liu, Tessa Weiss, Lachlan Wright

Additional Contributors:
Hylla Barbosa, TJ Conway, Steve Abbot, Claire Dougherty, Nabil Bennouna, Joe Fallurin, Josh Henretig, Oscar Hernandez, Ingrid Mielke-Maday, Mark Porter, Ben Skinner, Jikai Wang, Isabel Wood, and Hao Wu

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As corporations face growing pressure to meet Scope 3 sustainability targets, low-emission products and transportation are critical to achieve long-term sustainability goals. However, differentiated markets for low-emissions commodities — such as steel, cement, aviation and maritime fuels, plastics, and fertilizers — are nascent and face high transition costs. Corporate procurement is a key lever to unlock these green markets by supporting project bankability and catalyzing system-wide change.

This report provides corporations with a roadmap to navigate this emerging landscape and lead the green commodity transition by:

Demonstrating the pivotal role corporate buyers play in bringing low-emissions supply to market
Outlining innovative procurement strategies to overcome early-market barriers through demand aggregation, sector-specific environmental attribute certificates, and advanced purchasing commitments
Offering a framework to identify and prioritize high impact technologies for investment, enabling quicker cost reduction, scalability and market transformation

Why it matters

Corporate procurement has proven transformative in both renewable energy and sustainable aviation fuel markets. Today, buyers could catalyze the next wave of low-emissions solutions for heavy industry and transportation. By leveraging their combined purchasing power, corporations can simultaneously accelerate their Scope 3 decarbonization and build resilient and sustainable supply chains.

Why act now?

Reducing emissions across supply chains will require significant investments in low-emission technologies. Early action today accelerates this process, triggering positive feedback loops, reducing costs, and creating a long-term competitive advantage. Acting now enables corporations to achieve their sustainability goals while positioning themselves as climate leaders shaping the future of low-emissions markets.

This report equips corporations with the insights, strategies, and tools needed to turn procurement into a powerful driver of transformative change.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank The Center for Green Market Activation (GMA) for their external review, notably Laura Hutchinson, Alex Coulombe, and Dan Smith.

Report | 2025