Sustainable Procurement

Man and woman walking through factory, looking at tablet and checklist
June 22, 2026 In Reeve News, Sustainable Procurement, Sustainable Products

EcoRFx: Sustainable Procurement Software for RFPs | Reeve Consulting

A man and woman reviewing procurement in a warehouse

Every supplier evaluation starts with the same challenge: determining which sustainability criteria actually matter for a specific procurement requirement.

Too often, procurement teams are forced to choose between generic templates that don’t reflect the realities of the category being purchased or relying on sustainability specialists to guide every decision. The result can be inconsistent evaluations, lengthy approval processes and unnecessary pressure on sustainability teams with limited capacity.

After years of helping organizations embed sustainability into procurement processes, Reeve Consulting noticed the same challenge appearing again and again. Procurement professionals needed a practical way to identify the right sustainability requirements quickly, confidently, and consistently.

That’s why we’re excited to introduce EcoRFx, a new platform that transforms Reeve’s sustainable procurement expertise into an easy-to-use tool for procurement teams.

Why Sustainability Requirements Are So Difficult to Define

Every procurement category comes with unique sustainability considerations.

The questions that matter when purchasing IT equipment are very different from those required for construction projects, professional services, fleet vehicles, or facilities management. At the same time, organizations must navigate Canada’s Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act (formerly Bill S-211), Indigenous procurement targets, organizational ESG commitments, supplier expectations, and reporting requirements.

Without a structured approach, procurement teams can face several common challenges:

  • Spending hours researching sustainability requirements for every RFP.
  • Using outdated or generic question libraries.
  • Creating bottlenecks by requiring sustainability team involvement in every procurement decision.

Organizations need a way to move faster without sacrificing rigour.

Introducing EcoRFx

EcoRFx Software

EcoRFx Software ranks AI-powered questions in order of relevance to your procurement.

EcoRFx helps procurement teams identify and prioritize the sustainability questions that matter most for each procurement requirement.

Based on the category, procurement type, and geography of each requirement, EcoRFx builds a tailored set of sustainability priorities. Once adjusted to fit the project, those priorities turn into a full set of supplier evaluation questions, ready to export and use.

Rather than starting from a blank page or waiting on someone else’s input, teams begin with a structured, defensible framework — ready to customize for each procurement process.

Every question also includes a documented rationale explaining why the requirement is relevant, along with evaluation guidelines to help procurement teams assess supplier responses. This gives teams the context to use those questions confidently and justify their choices when needed.

From Blank Page to Issued RFP in Under 15 Minutes

EcoRFx is designed to reduce the time and effort required to build sustainability requirements into procurement processes, giving teams a structured starting point instead of asking them to research and build requirements from scratch.

What Your Team Walks Away With

Bid-ready questions

Sustainability questions curated for your procurement category and ready to export into your RFP or procurement documents.

Defensible documentation

Documented rationales provide a clear record that can be shared with sustainability teams, leadership and auditors when teams need to explain why requirements were included.

A reusable template library

Start saving and reusing procurement requirements and organizational knowledge so teams don’t have to reinvent the process for every RFP. This way valuable knowledge stays within the organization as teams change.

Procurement independence

Give procurement professionals the tools and guidance to move projects forward without escalating every procurement decision to a sustainability specialist.

More Than a Question Generator

EcoRFx brings your sustainable procurement workflow together in one platform, with tools designed to support teams throughout the procurement process, including:

Question Generator & Evaluation Criteria

Generate sustainability questions tailored to the procurement and access guidance for evaluating supplier responses.

Relevant Ecolabels & Specifications

Identify ecolabels, certifications and specifications relevant to the procurement category.

Procurement Manager

Manage sustainable procurement requirements and projects through a structured workflow.

Organization Library

Build a reusable source of organizational procurement knowledge, requirements and templates.

Export Engine

Turn completed requirements and evaluation criteria into documentation ready to use in the procurement process.

Chatbot Assistant

Get additional guidance and support while working through sustainable procurement requirements.

Together, these tools help organizations move away from fragmented spreadsheets, generic question libraries and one-off processes toward a more consistent approach to sustainable procurement.

Turning Consulting Expertise Into a Practical Tool

EcoRFx is built by Reeve Consulting, a Canadian sustainable procurement advisory with more than two decades of experience helping organizations integrate sustainability into purchasing decisions.

The platform brings together the frameworks, question libraries, evaluation methodologies, and procurement insights refined through years of client engagements and hundreds of supplier evaluations.

By transforming that experience into a digital platform, EcoRFx makes Reeve’s sustainable procurement expertise more accessible to procurement teams and easier to apply across an organization.

Built on Reeve’s Four Pillars of Sustainable Procurement

The four pillars of sustainability, ethical. indigenous, social and environmental

At the core of EcoRFx is Reeve Consulting’s Four Pillars framework, developed through years of supporting public and private sector organizations across Canada.

1. Ethical

Evaluate governance practices, labour standards, transparency, and responsible business conduct.

2. Indigenous

Advance Indigenous participation and help organizations align with Indigenous procurement commitments, and reconciliation objectives.

3. Social

Support community benefits, workforce wellbeing, diversity, equity, and broader social outcomes.

4. Environmental

Address carbon emissions, resource use, waste reduction, circular economy considerations, and environmental performance.

Together, the four pillars help teams consider sustainability from multiple perspectives while focusing on the issues most relevant to each procurement.

Sustainable Procurement Without Starting From Scratch

EcoRFx isn’t designed to replace sustainability expertise. It’s designed to make that expertise easier to apply. Procurement teams gain a structured way to:

  1. Determine what matters
  2. Understand why it matters
  3. Evaluate supplier responses, and
  4. Document their decisions. 

Sustainability professionals, in turn, can focus their time on higher-risk or more complex  decisions without adding unnecessary complexity to the process.

The result is a practical way to bring more sustainability into more procurement decisions – from blank page to issued RFP – in as little as 15 minutes!

Explore EcoRFx

If your organization is looking to standardize sustainability requirements and strengthen procurement outcomes, visit EcoRFx to explore the platform and learn more.

See how EcoRFx works –>

October 10, 2025 In Reeve Blog, Sustainable Procurement

Bill C-59 is Law. Is Your Procurement Team Ready?

Bill C-59 introduces significant amendments to the Competition Act to combat greenwashing — the practice of making false, misleading, or exaggerated sustainability claims. This legislation carries important implications for procurement teams, who increasingly rely on supplier ESG claims to inform purchasing decisions and support reporting or corporate communications. If you work in procurement, it’s critical to understand your role in protecting your organization from financial, legal, and reputational risk.

Why Bill C-59 Matters for Procurement

Procurement teams now have a stronger responsibility to validate supplier’s sustainability claims. Environmental statements made in RFP responses, supplier directories, or marketing materials must be clear, verifiable, and supported by evidence such as certifications, life cycle assessments (LCAs), or GHG emissions data.

Failing to request or confirm supporting documentation can leave organizations vulnerable — especially when suppliers make vague statements like “eco-friendly” or “sustainable” without substantiation. For procurement professionals, this represents a shift from accepting claims at face value to actively managing and verifying ESG information throughout the sourcing process. This responsibility becomes even more critical when you use supplier claims in public communications, such as sustainability reports, websites, newsletters, or press releases.

Case Example: Keurig Canada’s $3 Million Greenwashing Penalty

In early 2022, Keurig Canada faced scrutiny for marketing its K-Cup single-use coffee pods as “recyclable.” It turned out that these pods were not accepted by municipal recycling programs nationwide, despite the company’s claims.

As a result, Keurig:

  • Paid a CAD 3 million administrative monetary penalty
  • Donated CAD 800,000 to an environmental charity as part of a consent agreement
  • Issued corrective notices and altered packaging language to remove misleading recyclability claims
  • Enhanced its internal compliance program to prevent future misrepresentations

Key Procurement Actions

To reduce compliance risks and embed defensible sustainability criteria into procurement processes, teams should:

  1. Update RFP templates with specific ESG question language, add disclaimers, and make supporting documentation mandatory for scoring.
  2. Align with recognized methodologies such as ISO standards, LCAs, and the GHG Protocol.
  3. Request supporting evidence for all ESG claims, including policies, certifications, emissions data, and reports.
  4. Verify supplier statements by reviewing submitted documentation for credibility and completeness.
  5. Maintain documentation records to demonstrate due diligence in procurement decisions.
  6. Train procurement teams to recognize weak or exaggerated claims and know when to escalate concerns.
  7. Educate suppliers about claim requirements and acceptable forms of evidence to improve response quality.
  8. Avoid vague sustainability language in disclosures or marketing; use specific, evidence-based phrasing like “made with 100% recycled materials” rather than “eco-friendly”.

How Reeve Can Help

Reeve Consulting works with organizations to strengthen procurement programs and ensure compliance with Bill C-59 while advancing sustainability goals. We help teams:

  • Update procurement tools, templates, and procedures for ESG compliance
  • Train procurement professionals to identify and evaluate sustainability claims
  • Support supplier engagement to improve data quality and disclosure readiness

Take Action

Bill C-59 raises the bar for environmental and ESG claims in Canada. Procurement teams need to act now to manage compliance risk and build robust, defensible, sustainable procurement practices. Contact us to learn how we can help you align your procurement processes with Bill C-59 and avoid costly missteps.

July 12, 2023 In Ethical Purchasing, Ethical Supply Chain Management, Reeve Blog, Sustainable Procurement

Prepare Your Organization for the Fighting Against Forced and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act in Canada

You may have heard that Canada is taking the next step into addressing forced labour and child labour in their supply chain. Earlier this year, we wrote about what you need to know with regards to the Fighting Against Forced and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act (the Act), including its context, who it affects, and the reporting requirements. Read on to learn about the Act’s updates, and to ensure your organization is prepared for the Act and it’s reporting requirements.READ MORE

April 6, 2023 In Fair Trade, Sustainable Procurement

Make it a Fairtrade Easter this Year: Choose Sustainable Chocolates

As Easter rolls around, you might be thinking about picking up some chocolates for your annual festivities. However, are you aware of the impact that chocolate can have on the environment and the people involved in the farming and harvesting of cocoa beans? The growing interest in sustainably sourced chocolates is a long overdue wake-up call to the chocolate industry. Read on to learn more about avoiding treats associated with child labour and environmental degradation.READ MORE

June 1, 2021 In Sustainable Procurement

5 Factors for High-Impact Sustainable Procurement

 Are you aiming to get more meaningful change and positive social impact through your procurement? We’ve heard from over 40 organizations that these 5 success factors are key contributors to sustainable procurement that drives positive change in the supply chain.

Over the last 24 months Reeve Consulting has interviewed over 40 supply chain and sustainability representatives from governments, crown corporations and private sector organizations on the essential elements of sustainable procurement and what it takes to move beyond Policy to actual action and impact on the ground.

We’ve summarized the results of these practitioner interviews and collated the 5 success factors that are most commonly cited for creating high-impact sustainable procurement program.READ MORE

September 16, 2020 In Social Procurement, Sustainable Procurement

Getting Sustainable and Social Procurement Lingo Straight Once and for All

Photo by ThisIsEngineering from Pexels

 

There are a lot of terms being thrown around in the sustainable and social procurement world these days and it’s a source of confusion for many. For example, have you heard Senior Executives or City Councillors talking about fair wage when they actually mean living wage? Or think social procurement is somehow different or distinct from sustainable procurement?

The Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement (CCSP) is here to clear the air because how can we be effective in advancing our social and environmental goals if we aren’t all speaking the same language? Find below definitions of sustainable and social procurement as well as other important related terms.

 

4 PILLARS OF SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT

Sustainable procurement embeds relevant sustainability considerations into processes for selecting goods and services, alongside traditional considerations like price, quality, service, and technical specifications. It’s a broad term that all sustainability issues can be nested under.

Typically, organizations draw from some combination of the following 4 pillars depending on their organizational plans and priorities. However, the best programs integrate all 4 pillars in a comprehensive, holistic way.

 

1. Environmental or Green Procurement

Sometimes referred to as circular procurement, aiming to:

  • reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, waste, energy and water usage, and toxicity,
  • increase the circularity of our economy, and
  • support clean, renewable industries.

 

2. Ethical Procurement

Reducing ‘sweatshop labour’ by:

 

3. Indigenous Procurement

Sometimes referred to as Aboriginal procurement, purchasing from Indigenous owned and operated businesses to support Reconciliation and socio-economic resilience for Indigenous peoples and communities.

 

4. Social Procurement

Reducing poverty and fostering inclusivity by creating economic opportunities for equity-seeking groups and other target populations. This includes:

  • purchasing from suppliers that offer social value, such as non-profits, social enterprises, and diverse suppliers, and
  • mandating suppliers to deliver social value as a condition of the contract, often outlined through Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs).

 

Photo by ThisIsEngineering from Pexels

KEY TERMS FOR SOCIAL PROCUREMENT

Within the domain of social procurement, there are many other related concepts to understand. Find a list of definitions for commonly used terms below.

 

EQUITY-SEEKING GROUPS, often referred to as marginalized populations, include women, Indigenous peoples, members of visible minorities and persons with disabilities. 

 

TARGET POPULATIONS are groups that are of special interest to a community. They may fall outside of traditional equity-seeking groups but are nevertheless important for the health and vibrancy of the community. Examples include youth, new immigrants, veterans, ex-convicts, homeless people, and small-medium-sized business owners.

 

SOCIAL VALUE within the context of procurement includes suppliers offering: 

  • socially responsible production (e.g. certified B Corps), and 
  • leading diversity, equity and inclusion practices, 
  • employment and training for equity-seeking groups and target populations,
  • full-time fair and/or living wage employment,
  • advanced health and safety practices, and the like. 

 

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE is an entity with a mission to achieve social, cultural or environmental aims through the sale of goods and services that reinvests the majority of its profits back into its mission.

 

DIVERSE SUPPLIERS are majority-owned, managed, and controlled by Indigenous Persons or individuals from an equity-seeking community including, but not limited to, women, racialized minorities, persons with disabilities, newcomers, and LGBTQ+ persons.

Many organizations with supplier diversity programs require suppliers to be certified by organizations including the Canadian Aboriginal and Minority Supplier Council, Women Business Enterprise Canada Council, Canadian Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, and/or the Inclusive Workplace Supply Council of Canada.

 

LIVING WAGES reflect the hourly amount a family needs to earn to cover basic expenses in their specific community. These basic expenses include food, clothing, rental housing, childcare, transportation, and small savings to cover illness or emergencies. Living wages reduce severe financial stress by lifting families out of poverty and providing a basic level of economic security.

For example, Canadian municipalities certified as living wage employers include the City of Vancouver,  New Westminster,  Burnaby,  Port Coquitlam,  Cambridge,  Kingston, Grey Bruce, North Perth, and the County Huron. Some cities have adopted category-specific Living Wage policies like the City of Edmonton’s policy for janitorial services.

 

FAIR WAGES are minimum wage rates for specific occupations. They must be paid by contractors doing work for governments with fair wage policies. These policies generally apply to the construction, trades, and sometimes cleaning and security workers. They are often tied to union wage rates, ensuring contractors don not slash wages and benefits.

For example, the Government of Canada, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Yukon and a number of municipalities such as the City of Toronto, Thunder Bay, Clarington, Hamilton, and Vaughn have adopted fair wage policies.

 

COMMUNITY BENEFITS AGREEMENTS (CBAs) require suppliers to provide jobs, training, procurement opportunities, and other benefits to marginalized and target groups in a particular community. They are most often included in Industrial-Commercial-Institutional developments.

For example, Infrastructure Canada’s CEB initiative requires applicable projects to employ or provide procurement opportunities to at least three out of the eight following targeted groups: apprentices, Indigenous peoples, women, persons with disabilities, veterans, youth, recent immigrants, and small, medium-sized and social enterprises.

 

LOCAL PROCUREMENT refers to the purchase of goods and services from suppliers in the buyer’s region and aims to foster local economic development and build stronger relationships with their community.

For example, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador increased their procurement thresholds and implemented a local preference provision in June 2020 to better support local businesses through COVID-19 and beyond.

 

KEEP IN TOUCH

Stay up to date with sustainable procurement news in Canada by following the CCSP on LinkedIn, signing up for the CCSP’s monthly newsletter, and reading our latest Annual Report on the State of Sustainable Public Procurement in Canada.

____________________________

WRITTEN BY: TIM REEVE AND ALYSSA MCDONALD FROM THE CANADIAN COLLABORATION FOR SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT (CCSP)

 

June 16, 2020 In Sustainable Procurement

Join a Canada-wide movement to advance sustainable procurement

 

In 2020, sustainable procurement is more relevant than ever. It’s an important lever for promoting supplier diversity, fighting climate change, and increasing the circularity of our economy. It helps manages supply chain risk and increases economic efficiency by considering the total cost of products and services—above and beyond the purchase price.

Sustainable procurement also allows organizations to contribute to achieving the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. In particular, it supports Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.

 

PARTNERING FOR THE SDGs

The Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement (CCSP) is excited to announce it’s teaming up with ECPAR and the Government of Canada’s Sustainable Development Goals Program to:

  • Bring awareness to SDG 12 and its importance;
  • Benchmark 200 private and public sector organizations through the 2020 Barometer survey; and
  • Build alignment across Canadian organizations advancing sustainable procurement.

 

TAKE THE 2020 BAROMETER SURVEY

Get involved by taking the 2020 Barometer survey by September 11, 2020. Receive a confidential, personalized report outlining the maturity of your sustainable procurement practices as compared to other respondents across Canada and recommendations for actions to advance your efforts.

 

SAVE TIME ON YOUR CCSP BENCHMARKING ASSESSMENT

CCSP members who participate in the 2020 Barometer survey will benefit from an expedited CCSP benchmarking assessment in preparation for the 2020 Annual Report on the State of Sustainable Public procurement in Canada released in January 2021.

Read the 2019 Annual Report here.

 

STAY UP TO DATE

Stay up to date with sustainable procurement news in Canada by following the CCSP on LinkedIn and signing up for the CCSP’s monthly newsletter.

May 7, 2020 In Sustainable Procurement

Charting a Path Forward in the Storm of COVID-19

Most mountaineers and backcountry explorers will tell you that when a storm descends that often the best thing to do is to actually do nothing. Conventional wisdom says settle in, get safe and ride it out. Scrambling around on the edge of a steep slope in the clouds and swirling snow is usually a recipe for disaster. But when a crisis occurs it’s hard to resist the urge to ‘do something’ – and to do it right now!

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global crisis. We’ve never experienced this paralyzing halt in our normal way of life. And so over the last six weeks, our team at Reeve Consulting has been trying our best to follow the sage advice of explorers and first responders to stay put, stay calm and listen. We’ve focused on our people, our projects and our partners while we wait out the storm. It’s been incredibly hard. The situation has been so dynamic – with an intensity to the crisis and economic shut down that was almost impossible to imagine.

As we begin to understand the enormity of the situation, we’ve been seeing huge needs within our supply chain and procurement communities. It has inspired us to take action and connect with our clients and our members of the Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement (CCSP) to see how we can help address the enormous supply chain challenges they are facing. Whether it’s securing adequate and reasonably priced PPE, ensuring the continuity of contracts with smaller suppliers who have seen global supply chains turned upside down, or simply managing the challenge of continuing to offer seamless procurement and supply chain services in the midst of a sudden and unexpected transition to remote work and telecommuting.

The recent CCSP Peer Exchange on April 16, 2020 highlighted how many challenges supply chain professionals are facing right now – and the incredible pressure they are under to secure adequate supply in a time of unprecedented competition for product. This has been further compounded by the fragility of global supply chains that bring certain benefits and efficiencies but leave many communities completely disconnected from some of the critical suppliers and inputs that are absolutely essential to us. It was amazing to see our members respond to the call to share information and resources to manage issues in real time – and then to be able to document those resources and make them available broadly to our members and others.

We know the first job is to stabilize the health and safety of workers and the public at large. But it’s coming with some direct sustainability costs and we are already hearing about the impacts of dysfunctional supply chains under pressure from COVID-19. As we scramble to assemble necessary supplies and PPE for front line workers from far flung regions around the world, one can only imagine the cost that will come in terms of packaging and waste and transportation emissions. The temptation to move towards more single-use and disposable products may be a huge step backwards in our efforts towards Zero Waste.

We’ll be monitoring these unintended consequences and hope that an outcome of this pandemic is an overhaul of how we think about our supply chains. Let’s continue to pause and reconsider the value of producing more products domestically, the role that small and local businesses play in our economy, what it means to really think about ‘best value’ and ‘total cost’ when it comes to how and where essential products like our food are produced, and the working conditions of people caring for our most vulnerable populations.

We know this storm isn’t over – but we do see skies brightening at the moment – and that’s giving us the chance to chart our course and take action. As we consider the post COVID-19 recovery let’s take this opportunity to rebuild our economy in a way that is more respectful of workers and the planet.

—

By: Tim Reeve, President of Reeve Consulting and Founder of the Canadian Collaboration of Sustainable Procurement