Progress on commitments

If we are to do our part to contribute to SD, it is essential that we develop an understanding of the concept and how it applies to what we do - on an operational level, policy level, and program level.

SD is a complex, multi-faceted concept that means different things to different people, organizations, and communities.Communicating the meaning of SD to an organization as large and diverse as the CCRA, is therefore not a simple matter.

In addition to achieving these SD commitments, we worked on a number of unanticipated initiatives, requests for information, and projects.For instance,

We were obliged to downscale and/or defer a few targeted commitments due to resource constraints and other urgent priorities. These included:

Over the year, our experience confirmed that we would need to review the resources dedicated to the SDS to ensure that commitments can be achieved as planned. The update of the SDS would be a priority project for the year 2000-2001, and provide an opportunity to take corrective action in the development of the new action plan.

Next steps also included the need to continue efforts to implement the commitments that were not achieved in 1999-2000.

We have many management tools and processes in our organization ranging from high level strategic plans and planning processes to the day-to-day operational procedures, standards, and guides that help us carry out our internal activities and client services, consistent with our mandate, corporate values and objectives.

Some of these tools and processes are key vehicles to ensure that we apply SD thinking to our business.The 'owner' of the tool or process must understand SD enough to apply the SD lens to the tool or process when it comes time to review and revise it.

To date, we achieved the following in support of the action plan commitment:

- as reported in our last performance report, Corporate Affairs Branch (CAB) included SD in the consolidated reporting section of the Corporate Business Plan, and in the Departmental Performance Report (DPR) / Annual Report.
- CAB also integrated SD into internal audit/program evaluation line of inquiry.This means that during an audit of almost any kind, managers can expect to be asked about how they are addressing SD and/or how they are progressing in the implementation of their SD commitment.
- ITB reports having integrated SD into their standing offers.
- CCRA's Workplace Fitness Policy, draft Parking Policy, and a number of new administrative policies developed by the Finance and Administration Branch (FAB) in preparation for our new Agency status, reflect our commitment to SD.

We took important first steps towards achieving the goal by including SD in key corporate tools such as the Corporate Business Plan (CBP), the Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP), and the Departmental Performance Report (DPR). There is still work to be done however, before we can claim that SD is truly integrated into the way we do business.

For instance, at present, the planning and reporting process for the SD strategy is an independent, but parallel process to the corporate business planning and reporting process.This does not promote SD thinking in business planning, nor does it encourage the alignment of SD and corporate planning goals and objectives.

Next steps also include the need to continue to incorporate SD thinking into many other management tools and processes, such as our memoranda of understanding, memoranda of agreement, contracts, specifications, standards, operational procedures, or guidelines. Providing this guidance and coordination to achieve this will be a priority commitment for the next SDS.

The federal government, as a whole, exerts a tremendous impact on the environment through its activities and operations.The CCRA is one of the largest organizations in the federal community and while environmental impacts of its individual operations are not large, it still has a significant role to play in helping the federal government reduce negative impacts of operations on the environment.

  Our broad objectives for Goal 3 were to:

- promote pollution prevention related to solid waste, storage tanks, hazardous/toxic substances and wastes, ozone depleting substances, emissions;
- promote efficient use of resources (energy, water and paper); and
- enhance the management of existing environmental liabilities and reduce the potential for future risks.

In 1995, all federal departments and agencies signed the Guide to Green Government, the federal policy for greening government operations.This included the commitment to:

- meet or exceed federal legislation;
- emulate best practices from the public and private sector; and
- to develop and implement an environmental management system (EMS) for significant environmental aspects.

The ISO 14001 standard is the generally accepted benchmark upon which the EMS is assessed by the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development.

Best practices for reducing the impact of our operations on the environment involve obtaining baseline information, setting targets, providing training where necessary, communicating planned objectives, measuring and monitoring results, reporting progress and taking corrective action.

In working towards this goal, we have met with many challenges. Some, like communications and coordination, are directly related to the size and decentralization of our organization.Others, like performance measurement and credible reporting, are related to the rigor with which we manage our environmental issues.

Solid waste management

In 1997 we said we would develop and implement waste management strategies and plans for priority owned facilities by March 31, 2000.

Fleet management

In our 1997 SDS, we committed to reduce vehicle emissions in fleet by 5% in 2000, using 1990 figures as baselines.

CCRA currently has 622 vehicles on inventory.This is less than 3% of the federal fleet.Vehicles consume fuel and their emissions are a prime contributor to SMOG and climate change.If we are to help improve the quality of life, nationally as well as globally, we need to find alternative modes of transportation and use alternative fuels wherever feasible.The Alternative Fuels Act governs the use of alternative transportation fuels in the federal government.

- In support of our SD Strategy, we continued to comply with the Alternative Fuels Act by converting 75% of our newly acquired vehicles to alternative fuels usage.
- Did we achieve our emissions target of 5%? It's hard to say.Even with expert advice and guidance, it has been difficult to calculate accurately the percentage of reduced emissions over the years.Our best estimate is that we achieved our target, as a result of reducing the number of vehicles in our fleet from 655 to 622 over the years, and our continued use of alternative fuels, where operationally feasible.

We will continue to implement best practices for fleet management wherever operationally feasible in support of the Federal Climate Change initiatives and Federal legislation.We will also continue to work with other government departments to strengthen the reporting framework for fleet management issues.This means finding simple ways to measure and monitor our emissions.

Green Procurement

Our 1997 SDS contained a commitment to increase green procurement by 5% by the year 2001, using 1999 figures as baselines.

CCRA procures approximately $500 million in goods and services each year.This is approximately 6.25% of total federal procurement.

- We began the task of establishing our baseline for procurement only to uncover a myriad of questions that had to be satisfied before we could proceed.Credible reporting on environmentally responsible purchasing requires a clear definition of green procurement, criteria, performance measures, and automated monitoring systems in order to provide meaningful reports on what we are achieving.We also discovered that the issues we were facing with procurement reporting were common to the federal community.
- Progress to date includes a pick list of performance measures and the development of input codes for our corporate administrative system to monitor green procurement activities across the CCRA.

Although work is in progress, we will not have monitoring systems for procurement in place in the Corporate Administrative System (CAS) to be able to report, by March 31, 2001, on whether we have achieved the 5% increase.

Next steps:We will need to redefine our target for the next SDS.We will also continue to work with interdepartmental working groups to come up with common definitions, criteria and directions for greening procurement.

We will develop necessary directives and training for procurement officers and will continue to update our CAS to track procurement activities on purchases with major impact on SD.

Green leased facilities in conjunction with PWGSC and other tenants (on-going)

For our 1997 SDS, we committed to work with our major service provider, Public Works and Government Services Canada, and other tenants in leased facilities, to implement appropriate recycling andwaste diversion programs.

91% of CCRA employees work in facilities that are leased.Successful waste management initiatives in leased buildings result from the cooperative efforts of tenants (the generators of office waste), building owners, cleaning and waste haulage contractors, and service providers.

- Our 1997 SDS did not identify a target date for the commitment, given the interdependency of various parties and their roles, and responsibilities.
- We began discussions with PWGSC regarding the greening of our new leases.
- We also commenced work on greening our own master lease agreement.
- Regions were encouraged to green their leased facilities, where feasible and as opportunities arose.
- We received numerous reports on inspiring recycling programs that are taking place in our regions.However, before we can report meaningful numbers to Canadians, we need to establish, on a national basis, our baselines, targets, and measuring sticks.

EMS for resource management

Our commitments for 1999-2000 included prioritizing issues, integrating action plans into operational plans, confirming roles and responsibilities and identifying resource requirements.

Efficient use of paper

Our target for increasing efficient use of paper included the development and implementation of management plans to reduce consumption by 5-10% by December 2001.The target was aimed at the internal use of paper.

Historically, paper use has been a huge issue for the organization, both in our internal operations and our external programs, however this target was aimed at our internal use of paper.It is precisely because it is such a sizable issue that we discovered it is no simple matter to put an action plan in place to reduce consumption. One of the coordinating problems is that there is no one office of primary interest for our paper issues, meaning we will need to work together to find appropriate solutions.

We have had to revise our target date of December 31, 1999 for an action plan, until such time as we can identify meaningful performance measures and an efficient means of tracking our progress in order to develop a realistic target.

In the meantime, however, we implemented a number of paper saving initiatives including, issuing guidelines for reusing letterhead, envelopes, bulletins, information packages, and other stationery when Revenue Canada became the CCRA in November 1999.

Green capital construction projects and leased facilities

Our 1997 SDS commits to developing and implementing measures to green new capital construction projects by March 31, 2002.

We worked towards achieving this commitment by:

- working with our real property counterparts in the United States to ensure that our joint facilities projects comply with environmental legislation on both sides of the border, and demonstrate exemplary environmental stewardship;
- promoting the integration of SD considerations and environmental best practices into the development of management contracts, specifications and design documents for the projects; and
- the Ottawa Technology Centre, Northern Ontario Region produced a guide to green offices construction to assist in the greening of refit projects.

Energy management

We also made a commitment to develop and implement energy management plans for priority custodial facilities by March 31, 2000.

This would involve communicating best practices, conducting energy audits and implementing action plans to achieve targets.

Our progress on this commitment was set back somewhat in 1999-2000 as we worked with other government departments on the related government-wide climate change initiative.The initiative seeks to identify significant sources of federal emissions that contribute to climate change issues.

- We started negotiations with Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) to investigate the use of energy performance contracts for owned facilities;we anticipate that we will be able to report on progress in the next report;
- we began examining the potential for using renewable energy sources for our major capital construction projects, where feasible;
- our intranet site also provided employees with best office practices for energy efficiency.

Next steps: We will continue to contribute to federal climate change initiatives, and working with Natural Resources Canada to install and monitor results from a ground source heat pump at our new border crossing facility in Osoyoos, British Columbia.

Water conservation

We committed to develop and implement management plans for priority custodial facilities by March 31, 2001.

Water conservation measures are generally implemented in conjunction with energy efficiency measures.We deferred work on water conservation, with the exception that:

- we confirmed that conducting water audits at our owned facilities is not economically feasible.However, we will implement conservation measures as opportunities arise, such as renovation or construction, and continue to promote best management practices; and
- our intranet site provided employees with best office practices for water conservation.

Ensure compliance with Federal statutes by December 31, 2000

In our 1997 SD Strategy, we committed to
continue to upgrade and to report
on our registered storage tanks, as required under the Canadian
Environmental Prote-
ction Act, Registration of Storage Tank Systems for Petroleum Products and Allied Petroleum Products on Federal Lands Regulations.

Old or abandoned storage tanks containing petroleum products are a common source of contamination. Best management practices include the need to remove or replace old tanks with new, non-corrosive tanks equipped with monitoring devices for leak detection.

In 1999-2000 we reported 22 underground, and 6 aboveground storage tanks on our registry of storage tanks.This is a minute portion of the federal issue which is estimated at over 10,000 storage tanks.

- To meet our commitment, we took a number of important steps.We conducted a storage tank validation exercise in all regions to confirm the number of tanks, conduct a condition assessment for each tank, and provide a cost estimate for upgrading the tanks.
- We are taking an aggressive approach to storage tank management that includes full implementation of practices so that all storage tanks, registered or non-registered, meet the technical guidelines set out under the Federal regulations.Progress is reported regularly to the CCRA Board of Management.

Our 1997 SDS commits
to developing and implementing an action plan to manage risks associated with hazardous material/wastes at major custodial facilities by March 31, 2001.

The CCRA's internal hazardous materials and wastes issues are not significant. In our laboratory at Headquarters, for instance, our issues involve the use and disposal of chemicals. These are being managed by the Laboratory and Scientific Services Directorate, which has a very strong system in place for its health, safety and environmental issues.

- Our Workplace Hazardous Material Information System (WHMIS) manages safety issues related to office supplies and equipment containing materials of concern to the health and safety of employees. Our network of health and safety committees monitors environmental issues in our facilities, such as the presence of asbestos, pesticides, PCBs, or any other health and safety concerns.
- Policy directives and procedures manage the prevention and management of environmental emergencies related to the movement of vehicles, goods and people at our border crossings.These are developed and implemented by the Customs Branch in accordance with the CCRA emergency and business resumption plan.

Next steps: Given that hazardous materials and wastes issues cover a broad scope in the CCRA and involve a vast number of stakeholders, we will be redefining our commitment for the next SDS.

Contaminated sites

Our 1997 SDS committed to develop and implement action plans for priority contaminated sites by December 31, 2003.

Pollution prevention is the preferred approach to managing contamination issues. This approach is reflected in the environmental management system we are developing for our real or potential contamination issues.To this end, we:

- continued to conduct assessments of our owned facilities in all regions, to determine potential environmental risks related to old storage tanks or other common sources of contamination;
- continued developing an inventory and classification of actual or suspect contamination at priority custodial sites (ahead of schedule - Dec., 2001);
- began the development of action plans to assess and remediate contamination from storage tanks, for implementation in 2000-2001.

Management of ozone depleting substances (ODS)

Our 1997 SDS committed us to develop an inventory of ODS containing equipment throughout the CCRA so that we could get a better idea of what we were dealing with.

ODS can be found in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems, some office equipment, and in fire suppressant systems.