First, let’s start from the beginning. Why is it that sustainable procurement in a public sector context is a big deal? The short answer is that the sum total of all government expenditures in Canada is often quoted to be $100 billion. With that kind of clout, suppliers may have the impetus they need to make sustainable goods and services their default offering, rather than a custom offering.

But what does sustainable procurement mean? ICLEI is the authority on this subject. They suggest that sustainable procurement is an approach to public purchasing that takes into consideration the environmental, economic and societal impacts of goods and services being purchased.

This is contrasted against green procurement, of which we hear most about, that focuses on the environmental impact of goods and services over the full lifecycle.

Time will tell how sustainable principles manifest themselves in procurement transactions. As business leaders are concerned with getting the required business outcome and procurement professionals are concerned with conducting fair, open and transparent processes – who will be the steward for the sustainability goals?

Organizations that are leading the charge for the implementation of sustainable procurement practices set their own sustainability goals before imposing them on their suppliers. This is not only good leadership, but establishes the metrics to which suppliers will be evaluated.
Some great resources that are available:

http://www.gov.ns.ca/tenders/sustproc/default.asp
http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/environment/workplace/procurement_en.html
http://www.greeninggovernment.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=256986C5-1

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 5:50 am and is filed under Public Sector, Sustainable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.