Lindsay Francis

Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) is “a process whereby public organizations meet their needs for goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value (…) [for] the organization, but also to society and the economy, whilst significantly reducing, and if possible avoiding, negative impacts on the environment” (UNEP & One Planet Network 2022). Governments exhibit significant spending power and can use SPP to demonstrate environmental leadership and influence industry to pursue environmentally preferable goods, services, and processes. Canadian municipalities are estimated to spend approximately $200 billion on public procurement annually equal to the buying power of the federal government. This paper aims to answer to what degree the policies and project bid documents which guide the public procurement process used by municipal governments in Canada result in more environmentally sustainable decision-making. It involved examining whether municipal governments factor sustainability into their request for proposal (RFP) documents, and if so, did these influence purchasing decisions. All municipalities surveyed incorporated environmental sustainability at some point in the procurement process, however, their effectiveness in influencing purchasing decisions varied greatly by sector and region.