Federal Sustainable Development Act (FSDA)

The Federal Sustainable Development Act, often shortened to FSDA, is a Canadian federal law that provides the legal framework for developing and implementing the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS). It was introduced in 2008 and remains the statutory basis for how the Government of Canada plans and reports on sustainable development. The Government of Canada's CanadaBuys page on the Act describes it in these terms.

The Act is not a product standard or a certification scheme. It is a legislative framework that supports government-wide planning, reporting and operational measures, including green procurement. Suppliers meet it indirectly, through the environmental requirements that federal buyers write into solicitations and contracts.

What the Act sets out to achieve

The Act's stated objectives are to make decision-making on sustainable development more transparent and accountable to Parliament, and to promote coordinated action across the Government of Canada. It also aims to respect Canada's domestic and international sustainable-development obligations and to improve the quality of life of Canadians. These objectives are set out on the CanadaBuys FSDA page.

The Federal Sustainable Development Strategy is the main instrument under the Act. Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) describes the strategy as presenting the federal sustainable-development goals and targets that the Act requires. Federal departments and agencies subject to the Act then report on their own contributions through departmental sustainable-development strategies, such as the PSPC departmental sustainable development strategy.

How the Act connects to green procurement

In procurement, the Act sits alongside several related instruments: the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy, the Greening Government Strategy, and the Policy on Green Procurement. Green procurement means building environmental performance considerations into purchasing decisions, processes and controls. Federal departments describe it as a way to reduce environmental impacts and to motivate suppliers to improve the environmental performance of their goods, services and supply chains. One example is the green procurement reporting of Women and Gender Equality Canada.

Departments apply this in different ways. The Canada Revenue Agency reported reviewing all new non-confidential contracts valued above $250,000 for potential sustainable-development considerations, as shown in its 2022-23 departmental results report. PSPC has reported mandatory standard procurement language requiring environmentally preferable packaging in all PSPC-administered procurements, according to its 2024-2025 sustainable development report.

Where the Act appears in the PSPC Supply Manual

The PSPC Supply Manual identifies the Act in section 1.60.2, titled "Federal Sustainable Development Act", within its environmental and sustainable-development material in chapter 1 of the Supply Manual. PSPC is a common-service organization that provides procurement services to federal departments, boards and agencies. That makes the manual the practical reference for how the Act's goals reach everyday contracting.

What the Act means for a supplier

The FSDA does not, by itself, impose a universal certification, registration or reporting requirement on every supplier. Your obligations come from the specific solicitation and the resulting contract. These can include environmental specifications, green-procurement clauses, packaging requirements, reporting provisions or other sustainability criteria set by the buying department or PSPC.

• Read each solicitation for environmental criteria and contract clauses before you price and write your bid.
• Check packaging requirements on PSPC-administered procurements, where environmentally preferable packaging language is mandatory.
• Be ready to explain how your goods, services and supply chain perform environmentally, since federal green procurement is meant to encourage improvement in those areas.