The CCSP is Kicking Off Its 14th Year!

This year, the Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement is entering into its 14^th year of operations! On February 2^nd, we were joined by new members, returning members, and guests from various public-sector organizations from across the country to kick things off. We are so  excited to see how CCSP members will continue to collaborate and progress the sustainable procurement movement in 2023.

At the kick-off event, the network of public-sector organizations from all levels of government, post-secondary education, and crown-corporations came together to hear what the CCSP membership has to offer, welcome new members, hear success stories from the past year, and discuss priorities for upcoming programming. With this being the CCSP’s 14^th year, we heard a bit about the history of CCSP, reflecting on the growth of the program and recognizing the founding members who are still part of the network today, including Ottawa, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Whitehorse, London, Halifax, Victoria and Vancouver! Amanda Chouinard, Program Manager, reiterated the CCSP’s ethos around the four pillars of sustainable procurement (green, social, ethical, and Indigenous), the 10 elements of A Best Practice Program Framework, and how sustainable procurement can help achieve corporate strategic goals.

So far, six new members have joined the program – Metro Vancouver, Capilano University, Red River College Polytechnic, City of London, Atlantic Lottery Corporation, and Ontario Colleges Purchasing Manager’s Association (OCPMA) –  and we heard a little bit about their goals for sustainable procurement. We also heard from some existing members about their priorities this year with common themes like working on implementing new tools to help integrate sustainability criteria into RFPs, training for staff to increase their knowledge and confidence, and obtaining adequate resources to keep sustainable procurement a priority.

As a sneak peak into the 2022 Annual Report, three members shared inspirational success stories from last year. BCLC gave a 15% weighting for sustainability in their promotional goods RFP. They found that incorporating sustainability didn’t compromise on price or quality, and ultimately were able to support a BCorp, ethically sourced, women and LGBTQ+ owned business. City of Saskatoon shared their project to honor and support reconciliation of Indigenous peoples by creating Indigenous artwork to display as part of new bus shelters and bike racks. They showcased the important value of early and authentic engagement with Indigenous partners. City of Ottawa worked across three departments to develop a program to sell the City’s end-of-first-life laptops for $1 to a non-profit group for redistribution to residents and helping to close the digital access gap in the community.

Before concluding the event, we asked our audience to vote on various Peer Exchange and Working Group topics to determine interests for the year. We found that participants were most interested in:

• Creating and usings Tools for sustainable procurement and updating procedures,
• Measuring and reporting on social and Indigenous procurement,
• Training and engaging staff to build buy-in and capacity, and
• Incorporating sustainability considerations into commodities like construction, consulting services, and IT hardware.

If you’d like to learn more about the CCSP, download our Annual Report here. This report reflects on the previous years’ sustainable procurement trends, best practices in Canada and success stories from CCSP members. Stay tuned for the 2022 report, set to publish at the end of March 2023!.

It’s not too late to sign up for the CCSP and learn along with over 40 others members working on all facets of sustainable procurement. You will gain access to a variety of resources such as contact directory of sustainable procurement professionals, a resource library, a Working Group and 8 member-only Peer Exchange webinars each year.

Email ccsp@reeveconsulting.com for more information and sign up for the CCSP newsletter for updates.