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Policy on Green Procurement - Questions and AnswersQuestions
AnswersQ1. What is green procurement? Green procurement is the integration of environmental considerations – alongside quality, performance, price and availability – into the procurement process, from planning to final disposal. Green procurement means that environmental impacts of the goods we procure have been appropriately considered using techniques like total life cycle costing. Q2. What impact is this policy likely to have on the government's Expenditure Review Committee (ERC) procurement savings targets? The Policy on Green Procurement is not at odds with the ERC saving targets. The founding principle of the policy is value for money. The implementation of the policy will be phased and it will draw on the Public Works and Government Services Canada commodity management process, which is one of the tools for achieving the ERC savings targets. The first commodities selected to implement the requirements of the Policy on Green Procurement are computers, printers, office supplies, fuels and lubricants, and furniture. These were selected because of their significant impact on the environment. Q3. How will the Policy on Green Procurement respond to the Green Procurement audit and recommendations made in the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development’s report (September 29, 2005) ? The Commissioner’s report centres on the absence of central direction on green procurement across government, the “greening” of existing federal procurement policies and guidance, the need to establish clear accountability for reporting annually on progress made, and the roles of those government organizations having important responsibilities for greening government operations, including green procurement. The Policy on Green Procurement is a government-wide policy applicable to all departments and agencies subject to the Federal Administration Act, unless specific acts or regulations override it. The policy establishes the accountabilities and performance expectations for Deputy Heads. PWGSC will work closely with the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) to ensure that the TBS Performance Management Framework for Greening Government Operations appropriately reflects performance indicators and reporting requirements on green procurement. The policy also clearly delineates the roles and responsibilities of stakeholder departments including Public Works and Government Services Canada, the Treasury Board Secretariat, Environment Canada and Natural Resources Canada. Q4. What departments are involved in developing the Policy on Green Procurement, its implementation and future administration? Currently, Public Works and Government Services Canada, the Treasury Board Secretariat, Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada and Industry Canada are working collaboratively on the policy and its implementation. Key roles and responsibilities: Public Works and Government Services Canada will provide guidance, tools, commodity management planning, as well as develop green procurement measures to be reported in Departmental Performance Reports (DPR). PWGSC will also participate in ongoing monitoring and short-term evaluation of the policy’s implementation as well as in the review of the Policy to be carried out in five years from its effective date. Treasury Board Secretariat will issue guidelines to departments on how to report against green procurement measures in their annual DPRs. Environment Canada and Natural Resources Canada will provide expert advice on standards, resources, energy and regulation, as well as assist with the evaluation of the policy’s effectiveness in its objectives. Industry Canada will examine opportunities to use procurement as a tool to advance innovative environmental technologies and solutions. Q5. Will all products be affected by the green criteria? What will be the exceptions? The Policy on Green Procurement applies to all federal government procurement activities. The policy requires that environmental performance considerations be embedded into the procurement decision-making process in the same manner as price, performance, quality and availability. The objective is to make green procurement part of the federal government’s normal business practices. Q6. Will the application of the policy result in departments and agencies having to pay premiums for the goods and services they purchase? The policy is founded on the principle of value for money and requires the integration of environmental performance considerations into the life-cycle costs of assets, as opposed to focusing only on the up-front acquisition costs. All aspects - quality, performance, price, environmental performance and availability - will be taken into consideration when making procurement decisions. Using a life cycle approach to examine costs associated with a commodity will allow us to consider not just the purchase price but also those costs associated with operating, maintaining and disposing of the good. Where opportunity exists to purchase goods and services that are less harmful to the environment and these represent value for money, we will do so. Q7. What is the estimated cost to departments to comply with the requirements of the new policy? Implementing green procurement practices will mean that when departments are making investment decisions, they will be expected to consider the life-cycle costs of assets as opposed to focusing only on the up-front acquisition costs, when determining value for money. It may very well be that an asset will cost less over its life cycle or it may not. For those instances where the product or asset will cost more, the policy also allows for departments or the government as a whole, to make a decision to advance environmental objectives. Q8. What makes a good or a service environmentally preferable? Environmentally preferable goods and services are those that have a lesser or reduced impact on the environment and human health when compared with competing goods or services that serve the same purpose. This comparison may consider the life cycle of the good or service from acquisition, use, reuse, maintenance, to final disposal. Q9. What are the environmental attributes of an environmentally preferable product? Environmental attributes are either positive or negative and can include: Positive Attributes: recycled content, product disassembly potential; durability; reusability; reconditioned or remanufactured; bio-based; energy and water efficiency; and, resource efficiency (non-renewable and renewable). Negative Attributes: emissions of greenhouse gases, bio-accumulative pollutants, ozone-depleting substances, volatile organic compounds and particular matter, pollutants released to water; and, hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste. Q10. What other green procurement methods are there, other than identifying the environmental attributes of the good/service? There is the potential to use existing environmental standards such as Energy Star TM and TerraChoice’s Environmental Choice™ label or their equivalents, where such practices are supported by the principle of competition. Where the supplier base is limited, Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) will examine the use of incentives. For example, the evaluation process for printers currently discounts the evaluated bid price of bidders offering printers from manufacturers offering component recycling or who have remanufacturing programs and an environmental management system that comply with ISO 14001. This also serves to provide notice to suppliers of the government’s intention to continue to raise the bar. As appropriate, PWGSC will also look at developing special contractual terms specifying environmental obligations such as packaging take back/re-use and use of certified recyclers for e-waste. Q11. Is training available? If so, who pays? The PWGSC course “A Guide to Buying Green” is mandatory for supply officers within the department’s Acquisitions Branch. This course will be reviewed and updated to reflect the requirements of the Policy on Green Procurement and focus on the tools, procurement methods and environmental standards. Departments seeking green procurement training will continue to enrol in the course on a per course fee basis. Q12. What other resources will be available to help procurement officers and suppliers wanting to promote their goods and services? Public Works and Government Services Canada will be developing “Green Procurement Information Sessions” and tool kits, a consolidated list of available tools, standards and best practices, all of which should be launched in March 2006. Q13. What happens to the existing “green” standing offers? The policy will be effective April 1, 2006. Implementation of the policy will be phased and will tap into the opportunities presented under the commodity management process under the Way Forward initiative. The initial phase will focus on five commodities: computers, printers, office supplies, fuels and lubricants, and furniture. Q14. How will you track and report specific results? In terms of implementation performance, the intention in the short term is to track the number of commodities where environmental performance considerations were factored into the procurement strategy, as well as the volume of contracts and dollars spent on the target commodities. For the long term, we will be identifying green procurement data requirements for the Government of Canada Marketplace, the PWGSC on-line purchasing tool, to facilitate the collection of data for measuring progress. In addition, departments will, with the assistance of the Treasury Board Secretariat, identify in their annual Reports on Plans and Priorities, appropriate indicators for embedding environmental considerations in their procurement systems, as well as performance indicators to demonstrate achievement of environmental target outcomes. Q15. Does this policy exclude Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)? We know that Canada’s environmental technology industry is largely composed of SMEs. This policy and its implementation through commodity management will help to create the market pull they need to get their products into the marketplace, and offer growth opportunities both domestically and internationally. Q16. How will the Policy on Green Procurement stimulate innovation and market demand? The Policy represents an important opportunity for companies that supply environmentally preferable goods and services. It will increase demand for their goods and services and promote further innovation in the area of environmental technologies. There are also many examples where private sector companies have successfully demonstrated the link between environmental performance, innovation, competitiveness and new market development. For example, the World Business Council on Sustainable Development has identified that market competition plays “a vital role in driving business towards resource-efficient provision of goods and services.” Q17. How does this Policy on Green Procurement compare to those in other jurisdictions? This policy is aligned with current international trends, for example, the U.K. and Australia are using a life-cycle approach. In fact, our policy can take us beyond other jurisdictions by using the Way Forward’s strategic approach to commodity management. This will allow us to systematically embed environmental considerations into our procurement decisions. In most other jurisdictions, the decision to include environmental criteria in procurement is carried out on a transactional basis by individual procurement agents. |
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