NEW LOGIC FOR ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE RECONSTRUCTION
Ukraine will have to rebuild thousands of kilometers of roads, bridges, and other transport infrastructure. However, the scale of the work should not return the industry to a model in which the main criterion for tendering is the lowest price, with operating costs and environmental impact taken into account only after construction is complete.
Reconstruction provides a chance to move to a different logic: assessing the full cost of solutions, using secondary raw materials more widely, and shaping demand for innovation through the procurement system. At the same time, new requirements should be measurable, consistent, and realistic for business, not declarative.
We talked to OLENA MOTUZENKO, a candidate of geographical sciences and an expert in integrated sustainability, about how green procurement can change road construction, how the Italian experience is useful for Ukraine, and how to combine environmental goals with economic efficiency.
Why should the green, circular and digital transformation of the road industry be considered as one process?
In a real project, these directions constantly intersect. It is impossible to talk about a circular economy without data on the origin of materials and the possibility of their reuse. It is also difficult to assess the effectiveness of a technology without digital accounting of resources, energy and emissions.
Green transformation answers the question of how to reduce environmental impact; circular – about how to use resources more efficiently and return materials to the production cycle; digital – how to measure results and make data-based decisions.
Taken separately, this will remain a collection of disparate initiatives. Combined in public policy, standards, and procurement, they have the potential to gradually change the principles of road design and implementation.
Is there a risk of sustainable development being sidelined when infrastructure needs to be rebuilt quickly and on tight budgets?
This risk exists. Under the pressure of urgency, there is a temptation to choose the simplest logic: announce the purchase, determine the winner at the lowest price, and report on the number of kilometers restored.
But with limited resources, Ukraine cannot afford to build facilities that will need repairs again in a few years. Sustainability is not an additional requirement, but a matter of durability, maintainability, operating costs, and resilience to climate and security risks.
Speed of recovery is important, but it should not be achieved by shortening design phases, avoiding alternative evaluations, or weakening quality control. Otherwise, we will reproduce old problems in new facilities.
How is green procurement different from regular tendering? Will the new criteria make road works more expensive?
The traditional model focuses mainly on the initial price. Green Public Procurement (GPP) expands the assessment: it takes into account the origin of raw materials, energy efficiency of production, carbon footprint, durability of the solution, the possibility of reusing materials, and maintenance costs.
This does not mean that the most expensive offer is automatically the best. The challenge is to compare the full value of solutions, not just the amount at the time of contract.
Some sustainable technologies may indeed be more expensive upfront, requiring investments in retrofitting, accounting, and certification. However, if the solution reduces the use of primary raw materials, reduces logistics costs, and extends the life of the road, it may be more cost-effective in the long run.
The government must avoid two extremes: immediate introduction of expensive requirements without a transition period and endless postponement of transformation. Clear deadlines, gradual increase in criteria and forecasted demand are needed. Business invests when it understands that the rules will not change after the first tender.
Are Ukrainian customers and manufacturers ready to work with LCA, LCC and EPD criteria?
The level of readiness varies. Some customers already cooperate with international financial institutions and understand the requirements of environmental and social responsibility. Large manufacturers operating in European markets are also familiar with these approaches. At the same time, systematic practice is only being formed, and for small and medium-sized businesses it is mostly new.
LCA assesses the environmental impact of a product or solution throughout its entire life cycle, from raw material extraction to disposal. LCC shows the full economic cost, including operation and repairs. EPD is a standardized document in which the manufacturer declares the environmental performance of the product.
The problem is not only in the complexity of the calculations. You need high-quality data, digital accounting, trained specialists and resources for independent verification. If the customer does not know how to assess the indicator, he either ignores it or turns it into a formal certificate. This is a direct path to green camouflage, when environmental friendliness is declared, but not confirmed by data.
It is not enough to simply add new provisions to the legislation. We need standard criteria, industry methodologies, training for procurement professionals, support for manufacturers and verification tools. The system must be ambitious, but at the same time practical and accessible not only to the largest companies.
How can the Italian CAM model be useful to Ukraine, and what should not be copied from it?
In Italy, environmental criteria are mandatory, not recommendatory, so this experience is particularly relevant for Ukraine.
CAM (Criteri Ambiental Minimi) is not just a good practice, but a mandatory requirement enshrined in Article 57 of the Public Contracts Code (Legislative Decree No. 36 of 31 March 2023). The customer includes the technical specifications and CAM conditions in the design and tender documentation for the full purchase price, regardless of the EU thresholds, and also takes into account the incentive criteria when determining the winner.
The mechanism is structured as follows: the law establishes the mandatory nature of the requirements, and specific indicators are approved by orders of the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security. Thanks to this, the criteria can be updated without amending the law. For the road sector, the CAM Strade is in force – an order of August 5, 2024, effective from December 21, 2024, with amendments from September 11, 2025. The document covers the design, construction, maintenance and bringing roads into compliance with regulatory requirements.
There are no general slogans in the document – there are specific indicators: minimum asphalt granulate content, requirements for circularity of materials, temperature of laying mixtures, noise level, reflectivity of the coating and waste management. For new construction, at least 20% of asphalt granulate is provided for in the total volume of road surface layers. For mixtures on traditional bitumen, 35% of secondary material is set in the base, 30% in the intermediate layer and 15% in the dense wear layer. For polymer-modified mixtures, the thresholds are lower: 25%, 20% and 10%, respectively. The customer does not form the criteria anew each time, but applies the approved requirements.
The third important element is the distinction between mandatory and incentive criteria. The technical specifications are the admission threshold: if the proposal does not meet them, it does not proceed to the evaluation stage. Incentive criteria (criteri premianti) give additional points within the quality-price ratio. This approach raises the minimum market bar while leaving room for competition.
The fourth and perhaps most important element is the real consequences for non-compliance. If CAM is not included in the documentation, the Italian administrative courts can consider this a violation and annul the procedure or its results. It is the presence of sanctions that turns environmental policy into a working tool. As long as the green criteria remain advisory, they will be applied selectively or formally.
The fifth element is predictability for business. The criteria are published, and the schedule for their update is known in advance. In February 2026, an annual CAM review program was approved, which includes CAM Strade. The manufacturer invests in modernization and certification when it sees forecasted demand, not just calls for change.
The most valuable thing for Ukraine is the very mechanism of translating environmental policy into terms of reference, evaluation criteria, and contract terms. It is at this transition that many strategies lose their practical meaning.
At the same time, the Italian model should be blindly copied – and European integration does not require it. EU law defines the framework: life cycle cost assessment, use of environmental declarations, selection of the most economically advantageous offer and market openness. CAM is a national instrument of Italy, not an EU act. Italy went further than the common minimum and enshrined this approach in its own legislation. Ukraine will have to follow a similar path, taking into account Ukrainian conditions.
The Italian figures reflect the local reality: the availability of milled asphalt, regeneration capacities, logistics and market structure. The pace of reforms should not be copied mechanically either: the path from a national action plan to mandatory sectoral criteria took more than a decade and a half. Similarly, verification requirements cannot be introduced without a trust infrastructure – accredited laboratories, verifiers and a system of environmental declarations. Otherwise, the new rules may turn into a formal circulation of certificates.
Ukraine's task is not to create a parallel system, but to build its own criteria into the European framework: to harmonize methods, standards and procedures, calibrating the requirements in accordance with the state of enterprises, availability of materials, the existing production base and the scale of reconstruction. This requires a transition period and a gradual increase in the bar. The most useful thing will not be copying of Italian documents but joint work on adapted methods and their verification during pilot procurements.
What role should universities and research institutions play in transforming the road industry?
Universities and scientific institutions can become independent environments for testing, data verification, preparation of methodologies and evaluation of pilot projects. They should also train customers, designers, manufacturers and contractors. The industry needs applied science that can answer specific questions: how does secondary material behave in road construction, how does the carbon footprint of technologies change, what indicators confirm the durability and safety of the solution. This requires a change in the model of interaction between science and business: in response to a practical problem, the company should receive not a theoretical report but a proven solution suitable for production or procurement.
What should be the practical model of Ukrainian-Italian cooperation so that it is not limited to conferences?
Such cooperation will make sense only if it is focused on a specific result: joint methodological materials, training programs, applied research and professional visits to leading Italian companies. At this stage, the main focus is a systematic study of the legislative framework of green procurement in Italy and the possibilities of their adaptation to Ukrainian realities.
The task of the model is to connect those who today often work separately: authorities, customers, business, universities and international partners. The transfer of Italian experience should take place within a single system, and not through isolated interaction with each group. Otherwise, each participant will develop only its own fragment. That is why network interaction should become the basis of this model.
An important step was the adoption of the Resolution of the International Ukrainian-Italian Seminar on Sustainable Production in Road Construction and the Formation of the Principles of Green Procurement in June 2026. The document identified common priorities for the transformation of the industry and provided for the creation of a permanent platform for expert interaction.
The next steps should be to institutionalize this platform and prepare a Roadmap for the implementation of the Resolution with clear priorities, responsible parties, deadlines and measurable results. These include legislative changes on the mandatory nature of green procurement, methodological recommendations, training of customers, support for manufacturers in the application of LCA, LCC and EPD, as well as pilot procurement. It is the pilot projects that will show whether the necessary data is available, how the market reacts and whether the proposed criteria do not restrict competition.
What indicators should we look at in a few years to see that the transformation has truly taken place?
Certainly not by the number of conferences or companies that have used the word green in their presentations.
First of all, the transformation will be evidenced by changes at the legislative level: green criteria should become a mandatory requirement, not a recommendation. Then, tenders will evaluate not only the initial price, but also durability and operating costs; manufacturers will confirm the environmental characteristics of products; secondary materials will be used in accordance with standards; customers will have effective tools for checking indicators.
The second criterion is a change in the very structure of competition. Companies must compete not only on price, but also on resource efficiency, durability of solutions, and data quality.
The goal is not to create another regulatory layer but to ensure that every hryvnia invested in road infrastructure provides long-term economic and environmental results. Reconstruction gives Ukraine a chance not just to restore roads, but to change the principles of their design, procurement, construction and operation.
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