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>Objective 3: Reduce the direct environmental impact of Justice's physical operations. The federal government made a commitment in the October 1999 Speech from the Throne to make itself a model of environmental excellence. Greening the government's physical operations, including procurement practices, is an important part of this commitment. The administrative element of Justice's activities contributes to this aspect of sustainable development. The physical operations of the Department of Justice comprise offices that provide legal services, develop and implement policy and carry out administrative functions. The Department has two types of office arrangements: "corporate" Justice offices and about 40 "co-located" Justice offices that are situated with their client departments. Justice's commitments under this Strategy for greening physical operations focus on its "corporate" offices, since client departments normally manage greening for co-located arrangements. The Department's corporate offices are situated in more than 20 buildings across Canada. Justice does not create a significant "ecological footprint" in comparison with other federal departments. Justice is one of 20 departments that together occupy only 14% of government space. About 60% of Justice floor space is in buildings owned by Public Works and Government Services Canada and the other 40% in buildings leased from the private sector by Public Works on behalf of Justice. This chapter provides an overview of Justice's key achievements in greening operations under the 1997 Strategy and of its new commitments for greening operations. A more detailed breakdown of achievements and commitments is provided in Appendices A and B. Key Achievements under the 1997 Sustainable Development Strategy Justice made significant progress in greening its physical operations under the 1997 Strategy. A major greening success story was Justice's collaboration with Public Works and Government Services Canada in retrofitting its two new headquarters buildings for occupancy. Greening Justice Headquarters Buildings In refurbishing the East Memorial Building and St. Andrew's Tower in Ottawa for occupancy by Justice headquarters: solid waste was minimized by recycling or reusing over 90% of material removed; virtually all packaging material for new furniture was recycled; environmentally friendly products were used for the retrofit to minimize emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs); energy efficiency was increased by equipping both buildings with sensor lighting and equipping the East Memorial Building with an improved ventilation system; and the employee work environment was improved by equipping St. Andrew's Tower with an improved humidity-control system. In addition, since occupancy, both buildings have required their contractors to use environmentally friendly cleaning products. While the focus of the Department's targets under the 1997 Strategy was on operations in the National Capital Region, some excellent progress was also achieved in the Regions. For example, Justice's Saskatoon Office relocated to a federal government building being retrofitted to increase energy efficiency by Public Works and Government Services Canada. Another excellent example of greening Justice operations through collaboration with other federal departments is the progress that has been made at Complexe Guy Favreau in Montreal. In that initiative, also led by Public Works and Government Services Canada, federal departments share used furniture and equipment to reduce consumption, combine vehicle trips for regular activities such as archiving, and divert 71% of waste from landfill through an extensive recycling program that covers paper, glass, metal, plastics, organic matter and batteries, as well as clothing collections twice a year. The Complexe is moving to higher efficiency lighting. The Montreal Office has also set up two photocopy centres, which have decreased copying substantially, re-using existing materials for this construction. Employees are encouraged to re-use and recycle office furniture and supplies. Since 1997, the Department has made significant progress in reducing waste at its two main headquarters buildings. These buildings exceeded their 1997 target of diverting 81% of paper and packaging waste from landfill. The target of recycling 100% of used printer toner cartridges was also met. In addition, these buildings diverted an average of 73% of overall solid waste from landfill, coming close to the 1997 target of 76% diversion. The Department has also greatly increased its use of information technology for communication, information storage, research and other purposes. The 1997 Strategy anticipated this would help reduce paper consumption by 25% by the end of 1999. However, the amount of paper purchased for Justice headquarters buildings has in fact increased substantially since 1997, and it is likely that there are similar trends in Justice's operations across the country. This situation will be addressed over the next three years. Justice has made progress in greening its procurement, which consists primarily of office supplies. By the end of 2000, green procurement was being applied to the four highest-volume items purchased centrally for Justice headquarters. Justice has also taken action to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds and liquid effluent, and to reduce energy use, although unfortunately systems to measure progress have not been available. Goals for 2001-2003 The 1997 strategy contained commitments and targets that primarily affected Justice operations in the National Capital Region. Under this Strategy, Justice will focus on four goals to ensure that a consistent, high level of greening performance is achieved on a national basis: Stabilize the level of paper consumption Decrease solid waste Increase green procurement Increase environmental awareness Goal 3.1: Paper Consumption Because much of the Department's work is centred on documents, paper consumption is a necessary and central element of its physical operations. Data is not available to determine to what extent the significant increase in paper consumption over the past three years is attributable to genuine necessity, such as an increase in workload or consultation. Under this Strategy, the Department is committing to make changes in its office practices to ensure that Justice uses only as much paper as is reasonably necessary. The national goal will be to stabilize paper use at the 1999-2000 level by December 2002. Goal 3.2: Solid Waste Justice is making the commitment to achieve a national target of 76% diversion of solid waste from landfill over the time frame covered by this Strategy. Based on available data, this target will meet the standard agreed on by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, although within a longer time frame. Progress against this target will be reviewed annually and the target will be increased if appropriate. One challenge is that some buildings do not yet have a wide range of recycling facilities available or the capacity for waste audits to obtain information on the rate of waste diversion. Efforts will be made to address these problems where feasible. Goal 3.3: Green Procurement Justice is making the commitment to implement green procurement nationally for its four largest procurement items by the end of 2001. In addition, Justice will review the options for green procurement of major items every six months in order to identify other opportunities and implement them where feasible. Goal 3.4: Environmental Awareness The achievement of Justice's greening commitments under this Strategy will require many employees to make significant behavioural change. Justice's primary tool in encouraging this behavioural change will be a series of measures designed to increase employee awareness. The aim will be to ensure that employees have a clear understanding of what Justice's greening targets are, why these targets are important, and how employees can help to achieve them. Three kinds of awareness activity will be undertaken systematically under this Strategy: A communications program to ensure that employees are informed on topical greening issues An environmental leadership program, in which individual managers will be asked to make specific greening commitments in a way that is visible to employees throughout the Department A program to recognize and reward employees for their greening efforts

 

		Last Updated: 2005-10-20		Important Notices