5 Sustainable Procurement Take-Aways from GLOBE ’22

Last month, Reeve had the privilege to attend – in person – the latest biannual GLOBE business and the environment conference which convenes world’s leaders in sustainability. There were many notable events, including the latest announcement from the Canadian government, unveiling their new plan to curb GHG emissions by 40% to meet their 2030 targets. In our corner of sustainability namely, scope 3 emissions, circular economy, and sustainable procurement, we saw more movement this year than ever before. The conversation is accelerating, and the standards are increasing.READ MORE

Read the Latest and Greatest Sustainable Procurement Trends and Success Stories from the CCSP

CCSP releases its 12^th State of the Nation Report on Sustainable Public Procurement in Canada

Have you been wondering how to get started on sustainable procurement in your institution – or feeling disconnected from what others are working on? Take a look at the Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement’s 2021 Annual Report on the State of Sustainable Procurement in Canada.

Download from here.

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Supply Chain Chaos: Is Sustainable Procurement a Solution?

Over the last two years, the flaws in our global supply chain have become increasingly and painfully obvious. Vulnerabilities in the complicated web of imports and exports have become glaring in the wake of extreme climatic events, political instability, and trade wars. We’ve witnessed huge shipping delays as a result of in-shoring and insourcing, relying on suppliers located in climatically or COVID-19 affected regions, labour shortages, and operational inefficiencies at ports worldwide.READ MORE

An exciting year ahead for CCSP

The Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement kicked-off its 13^th year of operations at its first Peer Exchange webinar of the year on February 10^th. Returning members, new members, and guests from across the country convened to share stories, plan for the year ahead and welcome our new CCSP Program Manager, Amanda Chouinard.  Amanda has been a member of the Reeve Consulting team for a few years and is taking her passion for sustainable procurement to new heights in leading the CCSP.

The CCSP was happy to bring together our network of organizations spanning the entire public sector from all levels of government, universities, and crown corporations. Program Director, Tim Reeve, reiterated the CCSP’s vision for sustainable procurement which is firmly rooted within four pillars of sustainability: environmental, social, Indigenous, and ethical. We also heard about the importance of not only building out the 10 elements of a good program, but also not letting procurements go by without actively integrating sustainability criteria.

We were proud to hear from CCSP members sharing both their 2021 successes and goals for 2022. City of Ottawa boasted both financial savings and significant GHG reductions through the purchase and installation of electric boiler systems. City of Calgary has started seeing the positive impact of their Public Value Through Procurement Policy and Benefit Driven Procurement Strategy. While Thompson Rivers University showed us the community and environmental value of purchasing local tables made from salvaged wood. The City of Winnipeg also spoke to their recently approved Sustainable Procurement Framework, and the City’s plans to refine a 3-year Action Plan for improving social and Indigenous procurement. These stories were just a sneak preview of the 2021 Annual State of the Nation Report (coming soon in March 2022).

Looking ahead, members provided input to the CCSP team on what they’d like to see covered during this year’s Peer Exchanges. Members highlighted interest in topics such as:

• Matchmaking Increasing Indigenous procurement
• Addressing circularity and GHG’s through RFx
• Developing KPI’s and other tools like supplier sustainability assessments
• Incorporating sustainability into commodities like construction, food services, and IT

The CCSP team discussed potential areas of growth for the program, based on the results of the ‘Future of CCSP’ survey. We look forward to continuing this conversation with members as the year progresses.

We also welcomed the 2022 Steering Committee members, a team of inspired leaders ready to provide strategic guidance to the CCSP team throughout the year:

Darren Tompkins, Manager of Purchasing, City of Kelowna

Corinne Evason, Contracts Supervisor, Materials Management, City of Winnipeg

Matt Sutherland, Procurement Leader in Supply Management, City of Calgary

Shelly Morrison, Senior Director, Financial Services and Strategic Procurement, UBC

Erin MacDonald, Senior Procurement Consultant, Finance and ICT, Halifax Regional District

Find out more:

Click here to learn more about joining the Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement, or email ccsp@reeveconsulting.com for more information. Members gain access to a network of almost 40 institutions across Canada, and to a regularly updated Resource Library with tools and valuable materials for learning to champion and implement sustainable procurement.

Decoding Supplier Diversity

The Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement wrapped up 2021 on December 9^th, hosting a final peer exchange focused on the work from their Supplier Diversity Working Group. Supplier diversity can be defined as the stratification of efforts in two key areas:

1. Increasing in the diversity of the firms you do business, with a focus here on equity-seeking and equity-deserving groups.
2. Working with suppliers’ whose workforce is diverse.

The working group really lived up to their name this last year, having developed some key tools for defining and operationalizing supplier diversity. Rosalie Peevers, Senior Procurement Advisor in Supplier Diversity at CBC Radio Canada, and Lisa Myres, Senior Project Manager in Procurement Services at the University of Toronto, shared their stories of how their organizations got started and are trending with increasing their supplier diversity.

Folks reading this may be first wondering what constitutes a diverse supplier? These suppliers are categorized as organizations that are at least 51% owned, managed, or controlled by persons belonging to an equity group or social purpose enterprise. Increasing your engagement with these types of suppliers may seem challenging at first glance, but with the right tools it’s achievable. The working group produced a set of tools; a supplier diversity certification council profile, and a Supplier Diversity Training Presentation slide deck, serving as deliverables for CCSP members to use freely in implementing supplier diversity at their organizations.

Sustainable procurement and supplier diversity work spans scaled spending levels, from low value p-card purchasing, to tenders and RFP’s, to large-scale capital projects. This span of spending levels creates many opportunities for improving your supplier diversity. Action items can include inviting at least a single diverse supplier to your RFP’s, focusing in on low-spend sole source as an area of interest in contracting a diverse supplier, increasing visibility to diverse suppliers, or simply better explaining corporate procurement processes and through direct engagement. Supplier diversity still a novel topic in Canada, and even the smallest strides in this area are impactful.

Supplier diversity is a business strategy, not a program. It is evolving from a social responsibility to a strategic enabler. The market is being flooded with new and innovative products from diverse suppliers, and folks working in procurement have the power to vouch for their growth and engagement with buyers. Employee satisfaction, brand value, flexibility through supply chain, fostering innovation and lower cost are all concrete benefits from strengthening your organizations’ supplier diversity. The intention behind buying also becomes clear when diverse suppliers are considered and involved, highlighting the nature of the engagement as a relationship  rather than a transaction.

Rosalie and Lisa advised those in procurement to really connect with their community of diverse suppliers and take the initiative to understand the variety of options and the stages those businesses are at. They stressed the importance of documenting your efforts, synthesizing the data in a way that’s productive to your organization. The ability to quantify the percentage of diverse suppliers your organization is engaging with, or at least your status on supplier diversity, is how you can communicate to corporate leaders the importance of the cause.

Fostering Vibrancy in our Communities’ Through Social Procurement

By creating economic opportunities for equity-seeking and target populations, social procurement is a key mechanism in reducing poverty and fostering inclusivity. It promotes and/or mandates more purchasing from suppliers that offer social value. It’s as simple as leveraging social value from existing purchasing practices to enhance inclusivity, vibrancy, and the overall health of communities. One little known fact is that social procurement fits neatly inside many other social impact related goals, e.g. poverty reduction strategies, diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies. Rather than something extra to achieve, social procurement is a tool to help better achieve existing goals.

The Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement (CCSP) hosted a Social Procurement Virtual Peer Exchange to over 85 members midway through November. Kim Buksa, the Sustainable and Ethical Procurement Manager at the City of Vancouver, and Matthew David, the Manager of Capital Projects and Projects for Transportation Services at the City of Toronto provided a wealth of expertise on the topic for all who attended. They discussed practical steps and tips for finding social procurement opportunities in organizational spend, matchmaking, and explored the benefits of a Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) lens.

No matter the price, social value is always there.  

The following best practices are some practical avenues to understanding and implementing social procurement:

1. Matchmaking: Break down the ‘what’ and the ‘from who’ of the supplier engagement process in procurement. For each individual procurement or service, consider finding several diverse supplier options, such as locally owned, Indigenous, or social enterprise. Think about drawing out a social value outcome on that procurement.                                                                                                                                                                      f
2. You don’t have to do it all: Set realistic goals and identify gaps in existing social procurement to use as focus areas. Locate partner businesses that meet more than one need.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       f
3. For the people, by the people: Elevate the weightings for key demographics your organization would like to engage with as suppliers. Call out social enterprise, Indigenous organizations, or temp agencies within union environments. Many of these are available through non-profits that have employment spaces.

Aligning the diversity of your supply chain with the diversity of your community is the cornerstone of fostering more social procurement and creating best value for folks and businesses alike. The social pillar of procurement works alongside the environmental, indigenous, and ethical elements as a tool to improve community investment. This value and impact is multiplied as social enterprises’ increasing involvement in contracts drives the market for diverse suppliers.

Letting go over financial concerns around initial spend and focusing primarily on best value or total costs of ownership can be a challenge. To address this, the paradigm around social procurement must shift towards creating a market with endless options for diverse suppliers, contractors, and apprentice organizations. Purchasers,

The transformative mechanism of social procurement on traditional buying and selling has massive potential to change local and national economies, and build community capital. The CCSP network provides a wealth of connections to members to collaborate and engage in discussion around topics such as this one, as well as attend Peer Exchange Webinars and hear from industry experts. If you’re interested in learning more, join the CCSP today and become equipped to create meaningful impact in your organization and community.

Buy Sustainably With Confidence: Understanding Eco-Labels

Ecolabels are meant to ease the process of purchasing more sustainable products by providing a certification that buyers can recognize as meeting environmentally, ethically, or socially responsible criteria. The goal of ecolabels is to promote sustainable products to buyers while providing the burgeoning market for sustainable products with a sense of assurance. However not all ecolabels use the same stringent criteria, thus allowing for deviations in standards for sustainable certification and casting a seed of doubt on what ecolabels can do for you.

The Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement (CCSP) hosted their Ecolabels and Certifications Deep Dive Peer Exchange to an audience of over 80 members in late October. Two experts joined us from TCO Development: Clare Hobby, Director of Global Purchaser Engagement, and Stephen Fuller, Senior Criteria Manager. Our member presenter was Tori Grant, Advisor in Sustainability Reporting at the University of Calgary. These experts shared tips, outlined below, to ensure ecolabels provide the ease and assurance we want, and ways to leverage the best ecolabels to make more sustainable product choices right away.

Demand the Best from your Ecolabel:

Not all ecolabels are created equal. There are 3 types of ecolabels with different characteristics that affect their efficacy, dependability, and diligence.

Type 1 ecolabels are a third-party assessment of a product based on the environmental and social impacts of a product or material throughout its life cycle. Evaluation and selection requirements of type 1 ecolabels are available to the public.

Type 2 ecolabels are self-declared claims made by manufacturers or distributors and are not independently verified. These tend to focus on a particular quality of product e.g compostable or ‘dolphin safe’.

Type 3 ecolabels are voluntary declarations of the sustainability of a product or service.

Buyers can rely on Type 1 ecolabels to enforce strict sustainability standards and provide truly sustainable options. Buyers should beware of ecolabels that do not verify a specific quality of product, include vague claims, or that rely on the buyer’s own conclusions about the sustainability of the product.

While Type 1s are the cream of the crop, buyers should also ask two things of their ecolabels to get the most hidden impact out of their supply chains:

1. Does this ecolabel certify environmental AND social responsibility?
2. Does this ecolabel require mandatory independent verification?

Demanding independent verification of ecolabels is the sure-fire way to safeguard one’s supply chains against risk. Without independent verification, ecolabels cannot guarantee that a manufacturer is upholding its promise to obey sustainable criteria. Certain ecolabels will provide the option for independent verification but do not enforce it, thus allowing manufacturers to slip through a loophole.

Our Favourite Ecolabels:

We’ve created a list of recommended Type 1 ecolabels to look for when you’re next purchasing from any of these 4 categories: Information Technology, Furniture, Cleaning Products, or Paper.

Each of these ecolabels is accessible, diligent, and provides assurance on a product. Leverage these ecolabels, or your own preferred list, to start making more sustainable choices today. Consider the low-hanging fruit of low value procurement or less costly purchases; can you look for the TCO Development sticker when shopping online for a new laptop, or consider products with the Ecologo sticker when shopping for a more all-purpose cleaner for your office kitchen? Let a top tier ecolabel do the work to verify your purchasing options and make the easy switch today to pick a product that will leverage your spend.

Getting Dialed into Sustainable IT Procurement

Would you like to know how procuring sustainable IT can actually help you achieve best value for your spend? Read on to find out why sustainable considerations can be the best options for your budget!

The IT space is fraught with ethical and environmental sustainability considerations, including but not limited to e-waste, worker safety, and energy and resource usage. With many issues to consider, procuring sustainable IT can seem like a daunting challenge. Buyers want the best value for their spend, while retaining quality, longevity of their devices, and efficiency.

While it may seem counterintuitive, including sustainable considerations into the procurement process can in fact help buyers achieve best value for their money and increase the lifespan of their electronics, while avoiding significant risks in their supply chain.

The Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement hosted their Trends and Tenders in Sustainable IT Peer Exchange to an audience of 100 members in late September. Two experts, Frances Edmonds, Head of Sustainable Impact at HP, and Terminder Singh, Contracts Officer at the City of Winnipeg shared their top considerations for sustainable IT procurement. We’ve collated their advice into the following 3 steps.

1. Identify your Opportunities:

Staying abreast of the opportunities and risks in your supply chain is a tried-and-true CCSP best practice element. At CCSP we call it a High Impact Procurement Opportunities list, or HIPO list. Conducting a self-assessment of your current procurement processes and products will enlighten you to potentially unforeseen and underutilized opportunities. You may be able to achieve greater value for your spend by taking advantage of sustainable opportunities such as lower device energy usage, reparability, and higher quality materials that will not only have good sustainable impact, but also ensure a high-preforming product.

Through a series of 15 pilots, Canada HP and Green Economy Canada created a free Self-Assessment Tool to help public sector organizations identify and implement sustainable procurement practices. It includes categories on hardware and supplies such as paper, ink and toner, energy usage, and ecolabels.

Find the Self-Assessment Tool Here.

2. Ask the Best of your Supplier:

While suppliers are the ones implementing and creating more sustainable standards for IT, buyers are the enforcers of effective and timely sustainable impact. Including questions and awarding points for supplier transparency in addition to product specific requirements is a sure way to ensure you’re receiving the most sustainable options, and that your suppliers are actively seeking new ways to provide better quality sustainable products. Some questions to ask your supplier include:

1. Does the company disclose their carbon footprint to CDP under “Climate” disclosure? If so, what is the score?
2. Does the company disclose to Forests, Water, and Supply Chain CDP disclosures? If so, what are the scores?
3. Does the company have set science-based targets through the Science Based Targets Initiative?

3. Buy your Product as a Service:

Perhaps the most important trend today in sustainable IT is the movement to buy the Product as a Service (PaaS). Suppliers such as HP are restructuring how they manufacture and sell to support the circular economy by increasing the longevity of their devices, reducing weight and packaging, including reparability as part of the product’s initial cost, and much more. PaaS ensures that you get best value for you spend by increasing the lifespan of devices, introducing higher quality materials, reducing energy consumption, and more. Certain specifications to consider if you’re interested in asking for PaaS from your supplier include:

1. Does the product include recycled content?
2. Does the supplier offer device reparability and/or take-back programs?
3. Does the device comply with EPEAT standards?
4. Can the supplier offer a calculation of the carbon footprint of the device over its service life?
5. Does the supplier offer sustainability support, to help you reduce your organization’s impact?

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As buyers there is a lot we can do to contribute to a circular economy and increase our sustainable impact, whilst still obtaining high-preforming IT products for a good price. Armed with the knowledge that many suppliers are moving towards a more sustainable production model, be confident that your sustainable specifications and questions are not demanding too much. With demand comes great supply!

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