Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify the current state of sustainability integration into Canadian government procurement and make recommendations on how to deepen current integration in order to accelerate the advancement of existing sustainability goals. We reviewed 50 publicly available Requests for Proposals (RFPs) issued between 2016 and 2019 and evaluated the significance of sustainability integration and the expanse of considerations using two measurement schemes. Our analysis suggests that sustainability integration into RFPs is currently superficial with limited integration into the evaluation process. We also found that the integration of sustainability was narrow with significant gaps in the breadth of environmental and social impact areas that were considered. As such, we provide insights and recommendations that will enable governments to accelerate the advancement of sustainability through the use of procurement.
Highlights
Introduction and BackgroundCanadian society and governments have recognized the urgency of global environmental and social challenges and are working to address them
Given the breadth of sustainability commitments, gaps in sustainability outcomes, the mandate on green procurement, and a belief that procurement can be a meaningful lever for change, we identified a need to better understand whether there was (1) a gap in sustainability outcomes achieved through procurement or (2) limited integration of sustainability into public sector procurement
We identified that a material influence in the evaluation criteria and coverage of the breadth of material sustainability impacts would be required to effectively leverage procurement to advance sustainability-related policy objectives
Summary
Canada and 192 other UN member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015 [4] and Canada has invested heavily in a breadth of efforts, including Canada’s first Poverty Reduction Strategy [5]. Despite these efforts, our progress is limited. Sustainable public procurement, defined as the procurement of goods and services by government entities that take into consideration social, economic, and environmental aspects [8], is one severely underutilized and highly impactful mechanism
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