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Darvish, A and Sepehri, M (2025) From Clauses to Carbon: A Smart Sustainable Procurement Toolkit Using NLP and LCA for Infrastructure Projects . In: Thomson, C (Ed.) and Neilson, C J (Ed.), Proceedings 41st Annual ARCOM Conference, 1-3 September 2025, Abertay University, Dundee, UK. Association of Researchers in Construction Management, 802-811.

  • Type: Conference Proceedings
  • Keywords: life cycle assessment, rail infrastructure, procurement, digitalised environment, sustainability.
  • ISBN/ISSN: 978-0-9955463-9-4
  • URL: http://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/proceedings/d04ebbfc4b1e7a38d39be342a0031c63.pdf
  • Abstract:
    Public procurement plays a pivotal role in achieving net-zero targets, yet current tendering practices often lack the tools to evaluate and operationalise sustainability commitments at scale. This paper presents a deployable Smart Sustainable Procurement Toolkit that enables procurement professionals to assess and benchmark sustainability clauses in infrastructure procurement documents. Developed and tested using UK railway sector data, the toolkit integrates Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to semantically benchmark clauses against standards such as BREEAM, PAS 2080, and ISO 20400, and to quantify carbon impacts using verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). Applied to over 300 procurement documents, the toolkit reveals patterns in credit prioritisation, actor-specific performance, and the weakening of sustainability across contractor tiers. While clients tend to issue strong, aligned clauses, suppliers and subcontractors often rely on vague or non-quantified language. By clause-level scoring, traceable carbon metrics, and an interactive dashboard for procurement, the toolkit enables transparent, enforceable, and data-driven procurement decisions. This work advances the use of NLP and LCA in construction management with a new model for semantic and carbon governance in sustainable procurement.