The ‘How-To’ Guide You Always Knew You Needed

Are you passionate about fighting climate change, reducing waste, and improving the lives of your community members? Read the CCSP’s Sustainable Procurement Guide to find out what your role is in creating a greener, more ethically and socially responsible community with procurement.

Cities across Canada are launching new commitments to fight climate change and build thriving, inclusive communities. Procurement is an emerging leverage point to meet those goals by integrating sustainability into city purchasing. Local government and public sector leaders are aware of the potential of sustainable procurement but aren’t sure where to get started. The Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement (CCSP) has released the ‘Sustainable Procurement Guide for Local Government and Public Sector Leaders’ to engage community members, city councillors, and sustainable procurement champions in discussions of the role they can play. It can be used as a starting point to get the conversation underway in your city to enact sustainable procurement programs, remove confusion, and help integrate existing sustainability initiatives.

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About the Guide:

The purpose of this guide is to enable government officials and community champions to not only better understand what sustainable procurement is, but also to drive sustainable procurement pilot projects and programs in their city. The guide was created by CCSP, a member network of Canadian public sector institutions who commit to aligning organizational spend with sustainable values. Through a partnership with the UBC Scholars program, CCSP curated the shared experiences of their members’ journeys for getting started on sustainable procurement at their institutions. The guide outlines key sustainable procurement terms to help you integrate language into your day-to-day conversations, definitions for the 4 pillars of sustainable procurement to elucidate the importance of each, a best practice framework that takes the guesswork out of getting started and more. The guide also debunks the most common myths that sow doubt into the power of sustainable procurement.

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Sustainable Procurement MythBusters:

“Sustainable goods and services are more expensive.”

Purchasing sustainable products or services now generally costs the same as buying traditional or less environmentally preferable products. When higher upfront costs exist, often overall benefits of sustainable products or services will create a valuable investment.

“Sustainable options are either not available or not as effective.”

The market for sustainable products has exploded in the last decade. Some product categories have a significant number of sustainable options, increasing the likelihood of receiving competitive bids if sustainable attributes are required.

“Implementing sustainable procurement will take too much time.”

Initially, sustainable purchasing does require some time investment to develop a policy framework, integrate sustainability into procurement processes, and to train staff, but tools are available to help integrate sustainability into all types of procurement practices.

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Join the Movement

There’s more where that came from! The Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement (CCSP) is a member-based network of Canadian public-sector institutions working together to align their spending with their values and commitments on sustainability. Our members meet virtually to network, share information, and co-create tools to better address green, social and ethical opportunities and risks in their supply chain. At 40 members strong, our network provides support and opportunities for collaboration across the nation. There’s no need to go this route alone; reach out to CCSP for support in getting started on your sustainable procurement journey. We all get started somewhere!

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Download the Guide Here