PROCUREMENT AT CERN

CERN strives to ensure balanced returns for its Member and Associate Member States and prioritises competitive tendering to optimise the use of its resources, with an emphasis on collaboration with suppliers to foster innovation and compliance with environmental standards.

In 2023 and 2024 respectively, CERN spent around 573 MCHF and 612 MCHF on supplies, services and utilities. Procurement is the biggest contributor to the Organization’s scope 3 emissions, representing some 90% of the total (see Emissions).

ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE PROCUREMENT

During the reporting period, the Organization took an important step towards integrating sustainability into its procurement processes by adopting an Environmentally Responsible Procurement Policy along with an implementation strategy, both approved by CERN’s Enlarged Directorate in 2023. The CERN Environmentally Responsible Procurement Policy Project (CERP3), launched in 2021, established organisational and technical levers for sustainable procurement and their implementation was initiated in collaboration with several services with a view to integrating environmentally responsible practices into their purchases and ensuring engagement with all stakeholders across the supply chain.

In this vein, the Organization published the CERN Supplier Code of Conduct in 2024, outlining what CERN expects from its suppliers and the principles that apply to them, which place emphasis on ethical, sustainable and responsible business practices. To be eligible for CERN business, suppliers must acknowledge and adhere to this Code. CERN also started testing a supplier sustainability due diligence tool to assess and engage with suppliers based on their environmental performance. Additionally, pilot projects helped to gather information about the maturity of existing and prospective suppliers and evaluate the integration of environmental criteria into market surveys and invitations to tender.

An important lever for the implementation of the Environmentally Responsible Procurement Policy is the mobilisation and capacity building of internal stakeholders. To engage the Organization’s personnel with the Policy, a general e-learning course on the environmental impact of procurement and the implementation of the Policy in accordance with ISO 20400:2017 (the sustainable procurement guidance standard) has been deployed, and a more specific training course for procurement officers has been developed. A pilot inter-departmental workshop on embedding environmentally responsible practices in procurement was held in 2024, bringing together the procurement service and the campus and supply chain services, and paved the way for future workshops to disseminate knowledge and best practices across the Organization.

In 2024, CERN launched a survey of the suppliers responsible for 80% of scope 3 emissions in order to collect essential data on the suppliers’ environmental performance and, more specifically, on their carbon reduction strategies (see Emissions). Tailored actions have been launched in 2025 for the most-emitting procurement families and a complete review is planned at the end of the year. This will pave the way for future decisions regarding how to further embed sustainability in tendering procedures.

By integrating environmental responsibility into purchasing practices and engaging suppliers in tailored strategies, CERN seeks to support more sustainable procurement in complex research environments and share its experience openly with collaborating institutes. Although time is necessary to embed change and evolution, these efforts reflect the Organization’s commitment to reducing its environmental impact while fostering collaboration with its supply chain to achieve its environmental goals.

MANAGEMENT OF MATERIALS

CERN’s materials management practices are reported for the first time. CERN’s material needs are driven by the demands of cutting-edge scientific research and infrastructure, which require materials of exceptional quality and unique characteristics. Balancing these stringent requirements with ethical and environmentally responsible procurement practices is a significant challenge. Materials management ranges from optimisation of the use of core materials such as metals and helium to the use of recycled or secondary resources to minimise the environmental and human rights impacts throughout the materials’ lifecycle.

A VARIETY OF MATERIALS FOR COMPLEX REQUIREMENTS

CERN’s operations depend on a wide variety of materials that support its research and infrastructures. These include:

• Metals, such as high-purity materials like copper, niobium and titanium, crucial for constructing magnets and other particle accelerator components.
• Construction materials, notably concrete and steel for tunnels, shielding and building infrastructure.
• Electronic components and advanced electronics, such as silicon detectors and radiation-hardened semiconductors for particle detection systems.
• Cryogenic gases, mainly liquid helium and nitrogen for cooling systems and superconducting magnets, and other gases for detector cooling and particle detection (see Emissions).

Given the complexity of tracing materials throughout their whole lifecycle, the reporting period focused on reviewing the procurement framework to start mapping CERN’s material flows and identifying opportunities for better traceability and impact assessment. This is driven by input from dedicated groups to guide materials selection in critical domains such as metals, cables, connectors and vacuum technologies (see In Focus). Further, the CERN Supplier Code of Conduct emphasises environmentally responsible practices, ensuring that suppliers focus on sustainable material sourcing, prioritise recyclable resources and minimise hazardous substances.

To address current challenges and improve material sustainability, CERN plans to collaborate further with suppliers to improve data on recycled content, with the objective of continuously increasing the latter and reducing material waste. Further, the Organization will develop processes to improve the traceability of materials across their lifecycle and will extend pilot projects to incorporate recycled and secondary materials into procurement contracts wherever feasible.

KEY MATERIALS AND SUSTAINABILITY FOCUS

Efforts to improve the sustainability of CERN’s operations target the following key materials:

• Helium: a by-product of liquid natural gas, helium is non-renewable and its supply is tied to finite fossil fuel reserves. CERN aims to design cryogenics systems with optimised helium tightness, ensuring continuous improvement of operations to minimise losses while exploring alternative sourcing methods and reducing reliance where possible.
• Nitrogen: while it is a naturally abundant element in ambient air, the supply of liquid nitrogen for industrial purposes depends heavily on energy-intensive processes. The plants supplying CERN are located in France. CERN’s liquid nitrogen consumption falls under the Organization’s overall energy management strategy, which follows ISO 50001 standard (see Energy)
• Metals, construction materials and electronics: while finite, these materials offer significant recycling potential. CERN is committed to increasing the use of recycled content, enhancing circular economy practices and improving traceability through supplier engagement.

Further investigations are under way to assess the percentage of recycled materials currently in use and set goals for increasing recycled content. This ongoing commitment reflects CERN’s broader mission to integrate sustainability into every aspect of its operations.

The table below shows the quantities of key raw materials, including gases (helium and nitrogen), metals, plastics and wood, delivered to CERN in the reporting period,. Volumes vary year on year, depending on the needs of the Organization.

Material	2023 (metric tonnes)	2024 (metric tonnes)
Renewable
Wood	6.8	5
Non-Renewable
Gases
Helium	31.8	30.5
Nitrogen	6 264	8 240
Metals
Aluminium, aluminium alloys	47.7	44.3
Copper, copper alloys	50.1	40.8
Iron	1	1.2
Nickel alloys	1.4	1.1
Stanless steel	251.4	111.6
Steel	67.1	56.9
Titanium, titanium alloys	0.008	0.03
Tungsten	0	0.71
Plastics	10	9

IN FOCUS

Leila Akhouay is the metal raw materials referencing specialist in CERN’s Services and Supply Chain group. Ana Teresa Perez chairs the CERN Standardisation Technical Sub-Committee (CSTSC) for metal raw materials.