City of Charlottetown and Town of Stratford
Sustainable Procurement Strategy & Action Plan
The City of Charlottetown and the Town of Stratford are two neighbouring municipalities in the Province of Prince Edward Island. Upon identifying procurement as a strategic opportunity to advance environmental and social priorities, Charlottetown and Stratford jointly applied for funding from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and subsequently issued a competitive bid for consulting services. Reeve Consulting was hired to develop a Sustainable Procurement Strategy & Action Plan along with supporting tools. Ultimately, to help each organization kick-start their Sustainable Procurement Programs and provide guidance for better integrating sustainability into procurement processes.
Reeve kicked off the project by engaging key staff from Charlottetown and Stratford in consultation interviews to gain a clear understanding of the current state of each municipality’s sustainable procurement activity as well as input on future sustainability priorities. Informed by the consultation interviews and their own subject matter expertise, Reeve initiated the development of Charlottetown’s and Stratford’s Programs with the following deliverables:
- A Sustainable Procurement Strategy & Action Plan for each municipality, outlining their Program Vision, Goals and Priorities as well as a 5-year roadmap of activities to guide the evolution of sustainable procurement. Reeve convened a stakeholder feedback session at each municipality to receive feedback on the drafts prior to ascension to Council.
- A High Impact Procurement Opportunities List of each municipality’s top 10 – 15 categories of spend with high sustainability risk or opportunity potential. Reeve conducted a spend analysis with support from Sustainability and Finance stakeholders.
- A Sustainable Procurement Toolkit of reference guides, checklists, and example RFP questions for all thresholds of spend to guide staff in integrating sustainability into their procurements.
- Delivery of a Staff Training Session with over 30 attendees from both the City and Town. The training captured the key recommendations from the Action Plans, and how to use the Tools when working on HIPOs and everyday procurements.
- Delivery of a Committee and Council Presentation on the Strategy & Action Plan for each of Charlottetown’s and Stratford’s Sustainability and Finance Committees as well as Councilors.
Both organizations went on to officially approve their respective Strategy& Action Plans and begun applying the new sustainability criteria into high impact procurements.