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Developing Green Procurement Specifications

The following pages outline options for procurement actions to mitigate environmental impacts of goods and services. It is organized into four sections:

  • Overview

  • This section describes steps to be taken to integrate environmental considerations into individual procurement actions, including when to use existing green procurement specifications and when to develop specifications specific to your purchase

  • Sources of Information

  • This section provides further information and website links to help you develop green procurement specifications

  • Environmental Issues and Mitigating Actions

  • This section offers procurement actions that can be taken for each key environmental issue and provides links to other resources for more information.

  • Commodity-Specific Specifications

  • This section provides more detailed specifications on a few commonly procured commodities and provides commodity-specific links to other resources.

Overview

You are faced with making a purchase and you know you need to integrate environmental considerations, but how? The following steps should be followed when considering green procurement options:

  1. Assess if a purchase is really required. Consider alternatives, such as sharing assets among more employees or reusing existing supplies and assets.
  2. If the requirement cannot be met with existing resources, asses other alternatives to procurement, such as repairing or upgrading existing assets, leasing, or use of acquired services.
  3. If the requirement cannot be met using an alternative to procurement, assess if any existing PWGSC green procurement instruments meet the requirement. Consult the Standing Offer Index.
  4. If no green procurement instruments exist that meet the requirement, consult relevant Green procurement plans for related commodities. The existing research and environmental criteria should be applied wherever relevant.
  5. If no criteria exist, develop green specifications to meet your requirement. The following sections will elaborate how to develop green specifications.

Sources of Information

When developing specifications for environmentally preferable goods and services, information on environmental attributes can come from a number of sources, including:

Environmental Issues and Mitigating Actions

The following provides an overview of the general environmental impacts that can be associated with various goods and services. Procurement actions that can to be taken to mitigate these impacts are listed, with links to additional resources. This is not an exhaustive list, however it provides a general understanding of the issues.


Environmental Issue Mitigating Actions for Goods or Services Specifications
Resource Efficiency General
  • Ensure goods and services make efficient use of resources, including raw materials, water and energy sources, throughout their life cycle
Energy consumption
  • Specify ENERGY STAR® qualified models
  • Specify power-saving features
  • Other resources:
Water consumption
  • Specify water saving features
  • Other resources:
Packaging
  • Purchase in bulk and/or concentrate
  • Specify goods with reduced, reusable and/or recyclable packaging
  • Require supplier to take back packaging for reuse or recycling
  • Use pallet recycling program
  • Other resources:
GHG emissions
  • Reduce energy and fossil fuel consumption
  • Specify energy and fuel efficient models
  • Other resources:
Renewable energy sources and fossil fuels
  • Identify alternatives that use renewable resources as raw materials rather than non-renewable fossil fuels
  • Identify replacement sources of energy that are renewable
  • Specify alternate goods with lower fossil fuel consumption
  • Other resources:
Ozone depleting substances (ODSs)
  • Reduce consumption of goods containing ODSs and services that use goods containing ODSs
  • Specify goods and services with low levels of ODSs
  • Consult certification program criteria, product database information, and/or information from the supplier to identify alternatives and/or acceptable levels
  • Other resources:
Air quality
  • Reduce consumption of goods containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other air pollutants
  • Reduce contracting of services that use goods containing VOCs and other air pollutants
  • Specify goods and services with low levels of VOCs and other air pollutants
  • Consult certification program criteria, product database information, and/or information from the supplier to identify alternatives and/or acceptable levels
  • Other resources:
Solid waste
  • Specify items that are or can be refurbished, upgraded or reused
  • Specify items that contain recycled materials and that are recyclable through readily accessible processes
  • Employ leasing options that enable suppliers to efficiently manage usage over multiple clients
  • Other resources:
Hazardous waste
  • Reduce consumption of goods containing hazardous material and services that use goods containing hazardous material
  • Specify goods and services with lower hazardous material content
  • Consult certification program criteria, product database information, and/or information from the supplier to identify alternatives and/or acceptable levels
  • Ensure appropriate recycling, reclamation, and/or disposal mechanisms are in place prior to purchasing items that contain hazardous materials
  • Other resources:

Commodity-Specific Specifications

Every good and service has different environmental impacts. The key environmental impacts relating specifically to the commodities purchased through PWGSC's commodity management activities are documented in the Green Procurement Plans. These plans should be consulted for commodity-specific environmental information wherever relevant plans exist.

The following will provide further examples of a few commodity groups and summarizes the key environmental impacts associated with each one. Links to further commodity-specific resources are provided to help purchasers identify environmentally preferable options and incorporate them into solicitation and contract specifications.

Note: Specifications recommended in this section are suggestions only. Specifications should be chosen based on the life cycle analysis done in planning for each procurement.

IT Equipment (Computers, Printers, Network Infrastructure) and Office Equipment (Photocopiers, Scanners, Faxes)

Key environmental issues:

  • Energy consumption during use and when in power-saving modes or turned off;
  • Toxic and hazardous chemical and substance content of equipment and packaging, including heavy metals (lead, cadmium, mercury);
  • Use of hazardous materials in the production process;
  • Water consumption in the production process;
  • Solid waste associated with used equipment; and
  • Packaging waste.

Specifications to be considered to mitigate environmental impacts:

  • Purchase only what is required (i.e. for standard office use, a top end computer is not required);
  • Extend asset life (i.e. use for 4 years instead of 3), for example, through the purchase of extended warranties;
  • Use PWGSC consolidated procurement instruments or replicate the specifications included in them, available through the Green Procurement Plans and the Computer Acquisition Guide Benchmark Reports;
  • Purchase models from PWGSC consolidated procurement instruments with high environmental ratings on the rated criteria, ratings available through the Computer Acquisition Guide Benchmark Reports (instructions available); and
  • Consider leasing agreements that require suppliers to take back equipment once lease has expired.

Resources:

Furniture

Key environmental issues:

  • Consumption of non-renewable resources (e.g. fossil fuels for production of plastics and synthetic fibre);
  • Consumption of renewable and sustainable resources (i.e. timber from sustainably managed forests);
  • Hazardous material content;
  • Use of chemicals and materials that impact indoor air quality (IAQ); and
  • Solid waste generation from disposal of equipment at end of life and packaging.

Specifications to be considered to mitigate environmental impacts:

  • Purchase only what is required, assess if consumption can be reduced through improved asset management practices:
    • Ensure use of warranties to replace damaged parts, rather than full replacement; and
    • Re-deploy used assets to reduce purchase of new items.
  • Require a third party certification or a reputable eco-label, such as EcoLogoM or levelTM;
  • Progressively add criteria found in third party certification programs or reputable eco-labels, such as EcoLogoM or levelTM;
  • Require minimization, take-back, and/or recycling of packaging; and
  • Consider suppliers with lean manufacturing practices.

Resources:

Fuels and Lubricants

Key environmental issues:

Specifications to be considered to mitigate environmental impacts:

  • For regular gasoline and diesel powered vehicles, consider:
    • alternative fuels such as Ethanol 10 (E10); and
    • bio-diesel for diesel vehicles.
  • Prior to purchasing flex fuel vehicles, ensure there is an Ethanol 85 (E85) fuel source;
  • Whenever available, purchase E85 for flex fuel vehicles for optimum efficiency
  • For oils, lubricants and other vehicle fluids (i.e. coolant, etc.) consider:
    • re-refined or recycled goods;
    • goods which exclude environmental contaminants i.e. glycol-free engine coolant; and
    • Use of bio-based oils and lubricants.
  • Ensure recovery of waste oil for recycling; and
  • Require vehicle maintenance service providers to follow the specifications above as well.

Resources:

Office Supplies

Key environmental issues:

  • Consumption of resources;
  • Hazardous materials management, particularly related to toner cartridges;
  • Solid waste; and
  • Packaging.

Specifications to be considered to mitigate environmental impacts:

  • Purchase only what is required, reuse, redistribute and share as much as possible;
  • Purchase supplies that are durable and can be reused (e.g. reusable batteries, binders);
  • Combine several orders into one and request bulk packaging to minimize waste;
  • Request recyclable packaging;
  • Require a third party certification or a reputable eco-label, such as EcoLogoM;
  • Require sustainable forest management certification for all goods containing paper or wood. Certifications include:
    • Canadian Standards Association Sustainable Forest Management Standard (CSA/SFMS);
    • Forest Stewardship Council (FSC);
    • Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI); and
    • Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC).
  • Consider recycled content for all office supplies, recycled content for paper should be a minimum of 30%
  • Require non-chlorine bleached paper products (e.g. look for Chlorine Free Products Association (CFPA) certification);
  • Purchase supplies made from bio-based materials (e.g. bamboo, kenaf);
  • Require reduced quantities of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and solvents (e.g. highlighters, markers, etc.);
  • Request vegetable-based inks; and
  • Purchase remanufactured toner cartridges or toner cartridges that can be sent back to the manufacturer for reuse and recycling.

Resources:

Imaging and Print Services

Key environmental issues:

  • Energy consumption during provision of service;
  • Consumption of resources (e.g. to produce paper, toner and/or ink cartridges);
  • Solid waste (e.g. computer, monitors, printers); and
  • Packaging

Specifications to be considered to mitigate environmental impacts:

  • Purchase only what is required, assess if consumption can be reduced through the use of electronic media, such as scanning and on-screen reading and editing, to reduce paper usage and the number of imaging devices;
  • Consider a managed print service approach, whereby the vendor provides equipment, supplies, and maintenance services and charges the client by the printed page
  • Require vendors to apply the following criteria when performing print services:
    • Use environmentally preferable equipment and consumables in service delivery that, at minimum, meet the environmental criteria required by PWGSC in consolidated procurement instruments for those goods;
    • Activate or enable low-powered features for all ENERGY STAR® qualified equipment, where applicable;
    • Consider the purchase of multi-functional devices to reduce total units of equipment;
    • Extend asset life;
    • Use of cost management software to minimize the use of consumables (e.g. paper, toner and/or ink); and
    • Provide evidence of an environmental management system or certification, such as ISO 14001.

Resources:

Procuring Services

For many departments and agencies, the most common type of procurement for which greening specifications are developed is the procurement of services.

Key environmental Issues:

A life cycle assessment approach should be used to identify the key environmental issues associated with the specific services being procured. The extent of the environmental impact will vary depending on the nature of the services being procured.

Consider potential environmental impacts in three key areas:

  1. general supplier attributes
  2. supplier operations when delivering the services, and
  3. the goods and services used in service delivery.

Environmental issues could include, but are not limited to:

  • resource efficiency;
  • greenhouse gas emissions;
  • renewable resources, energy sources and fossil fuels;
  • ozone-depleting substances;
  • air quality;
  • solid waste; or
  • hazardous waste.

Specifications to be considered to mitigate environmental impacts:

Supplier attributes (must be relevant to the services being procured)

  • Require supplier to have environmental management policies and practices that address general operations and are geared to continuous improvement;
  • Require supplier evidence of an environmental management system or certification, such as ISO 14001;
  • Require the completion of regular waste audits and a sound waste disposal program; and
  • Request the inclusion of environmental considerations in the corporate travel policy, including minimization of travel and selection of environmentally preferable modes of transportation.

Supplier operations when delivering a service

  • Include the use of video/teleconferencing instead of in-person meetings;
  • Include the use of environmentally preferable modes of transportation when travel is necessary;
  • Include practices to minimize printing, such as the use of electronic distribution of documents; and
  • Include the use of duplex (double sided) printing in black and white when printing is necessary.

Goods and services used in service delivery

  • Require the use of environmentally preferable equipment and consumables in service delivery that, at minimum, meet the environmental criteria required by PWGSC in consolidated procurement instruments for those goods.

Resources:

Date Modified: Friday, 02-Dec-2011 08:28:03 EST

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