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Sustainable Procurement Program
Sustainable procurement involves taking a best value approach to meaningfully integrate sustainability criteria into procurement decisions to get more sustainable goods and services from more sustainable suppliers, ultimately for the benefit of the environment and society and in service of your college’s top-level strategies. Every purchase has a different blend of relevant sustainability risks and potential opportunities that can be embedded into the procurement process alongside traditional considerations like price, quality, service, and technical specifications. Sustainable procurement can be broken down into four distinct pillars that capture the wide variety of sustainability issues. Colleges should identify which sustainability priorities are most important to them within each pillar, while remaining open to opportunities to address others as needed. Sustainable procurement efforts should encompass all four of these pillars, however colleges do not need to be advancing all four all the time.
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OCPMA has adopted a Best Practice Program Framework, from Reeve Consulting and the Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement, that has been developed based on 20 years of experience with over 100 organizations and designed to align with other existing standards.
FOUR PILLARS OF SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL PROCUREMENT
Aims to minimize environmental harm and maximize positive outcomes for a healthier environment. Focusses on issues like reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, pursuing net-zero, energy efficiency, zero-waste and circularity, and reducing water usage and toxicity. It also supports the adoption of clean and renewable technologies.
ETHICAL PROCUREMENT
Involves reducing modern slavery and ‘sweatshop labour’ by setting recognized minimum workplace standards for suppliers and subcontractors. This often involves assessing compliance with the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization’s conventions against child labour, forced labour, and employment discrimination.
SOCIAL PROCUREMENT
Fosters diversity and inclusivity by creating economic opportunities for equity-deserving and other target populations. This includes purchasing from local suppliers, suppliers that offer social value, such as non-profits, social enterprises, and diverse suppliers, and mandating other suppliers to deliver on social value through their own corporate practices and services they offer, including living wage.
INDIGENOUS PROCUREMENT
Promotes reconciliation through contracting and subcontracting Indigenous businesses, increasing employment and skills development opportunities for Indigenous peoples, and otherwise engaging them in public spending in alignment with the Government of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 92, Business and Reconciliation, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
