Green Procurement Policy

In Canadian federal procurement, the Green Procurement Policy is the Government of Canada's Policy on Green Procurement. It requires the procurement of goods and services to actively promote environmental stewardship. It builds environmental considerations into procurement planning, acquisition, use and disposal, while maintaining value for money. The policy text is published by the Treasury Board Secretariat: Policy on Green Procurement.

Green procurement means buying environmentally preferable goods or services. These have a lesser or reduced impact on the environment over their life cycle than competing goods or services that serve the same purpose. Canada introduced the policy in April 2006 and updated it in 2018, as described in the PSPC guidance on applying the policy.

Who the Policy on Green Procurement applies to

The policy applies to all departments within the meaning of section 2 of the Financial Administration Act, unless another act or regulation overrides it. It is directed at federal departments and agencies, which must embed environmental-performance considerations in their procurement decisions. It is a buyer-side policy. It sets out what government purchasers must do, and suppliers meet it through the requirements written into each solicitation.

Life-cycle thinking and value for money

Two ideas sit at the centre of the policy. The first is life-cycle management. Buyers consider environmental impacts from resource extraction through acquisition, use and disposal, not only at the point of sale.

The second is value for money. Environmental performance is weighed alongside cost, performance, availability and quality. It does not replace those factors, and it does not override value for money. The Treasury Board Secretariat's green procurement page adds that the policy is integrated with the federal Greening Government Strategy. That strategy includes work to reduce embodied carbon and address other environmental considerations in purchased goods and services, particularly for high-value purchases and categories with high environmental impact.

How federal buyers put the policy into practice

PSPC applies the policy through green-procurement tools and procurement guidance. Its planning guidance describes green-procurement plans. For a given good or service, a plan identifies the key environmental impacts, the procurement actions that can reduce them, and progress in implementing the policy.

The CanadaBuys buyer's guide on green procurement covers evaluation and award. Buyers consider environmental performance together with price, performance, quality and availability. For goods supplied in packaging, buyers must include standard language on environmentally preferable packaging.

• Planning: environmental impacts and mitigation actions are identified before the solicitation is issued.
• Requirements: technical specifications and environmental criteria can reflect the policy.
• Evaluation and award: environmental performance is weighed alongside other factors.
• Packaging: standard language applies where goods come in packaging.

What the Green Procurement Policy means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

The policy does not impose one universal supplier certification or contract clause across every procurement. A supplier's obligations come from the individual solicitation and the resulting contract. Read each bid document for environmental requirements. These can include technical specifications, environmental criteria, packaging requirements, reporting obligations and life-cycle-related requirements.

Bid teams can prepare by documenting the environmental attributes of their products and services, including packaging, and by being ready to show how those attributes meet stated criteria. Suppliers in categories with high environmental impact, or on high-value purchases, should expect embodied carbon and similar considerations to appear in requirements as the government updates them. Defence suppliers meet the policy in the same way, wherever a federal solicitation includes environmental requirements.