Performance Report on Sustainable Development April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011
Executive Summary
This report outlines the Agency's performance against the commitments in the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Sustainable Development (SD) National Action Plan 2010-2011. The period represents the transition year between the end of SD Strategy 2007-2010 and the start of SD Strategy 2011-2014. The report provides details on the activities that support the four goals of the Plan:
Goal 1: Reduce the effects of our operations on land, air, and water
Goal 2: Demonstrate sustainable service delivery of tax and benefit programs
Goal 3: All employees apply sustainable development in their jobs
Goal 4: Use modern systems that support and maintain sustainable development
Overall, we achieved 90% of the planned progress on the activities outlined in the SD National Action Plan 2010-2011 and met or mostly met Footnote 1 73% of the targets in the 2010-2011 Environmental Management Programs (EMPs) that support Goal 1. The performance highlights by goal are as follows:
Goal 1 highlights: Reduce the effects of our operations on land, air, and water
The CRA maintained compliance with all applicable environmental legislation and met five of our seven environmental targets. The remaining two targets are still in progress and will be addressed during the new SD strategy. We exceeded our projected progress in the areas of solid waste management and green procurement, with 96% of employees having access to the No Waste recycling program and 7.4% of all CRA spending going toward environmentally friendly products and services. We reduced GHG emissions from our vehicle fleet and increased the overall percentage of hybrid and alternative transportation fuel vehicles in the fleet to 53%. We promoted sustainable business travel Agency-wide; and through our energy conservation initiatives, we reduced the energy wasted in six pilot facilities by an average of 25%.
Goal 2 highlights: Demonstrate sustainable service delivery of tax and benefit programs
We continued to increase the availability of electronic service options to taxpayers and benefit recipients. Approximately 60% of individual (T1) tax returns and 46% of corporate (T2) returns were filed electronically. The use of CRA online portals also increased, with My Business Account recording an increase in user traffic of 64% over the previous year. We continued monitoring the paper saved through the increasing use of the Agency's EFILE and NETFILE services and found that in the 2010 tax year, 692 million sheets of paper were saved due to the use of these tax filing options.
Goal 3 highlights: All employees apply sustainable development in their jobs
Senior management at the CRA continued to demonstrate strong support for the SD program. Almost all (98%) of the Executive Cadre (EC) group and 86% of the Management/Gestion (MG) group included SD commitments in their performance agreements and expectations. We increased the number of SD modules delivered through the MG Learning Program (MGLP) by 57%, and saw a corresponding increase in the number of participants. The 2010 SD employee awareness survey determined that 97% of employees are aware of SD at the CRA. We also awarded $50,000 through the Sustainable Development Innovation Fund Footnote 2 to support the implementation of three employee-driven projects designed to increase process efficiencies and achieve environmental and cost savings.
Goal 4 highlights: Use modern systems that support and maintain sustainable development
We updated and posted online a new SD Criteria Tool that is designed to guide analysts and planners in applying SD considerations in their projects, policies and plans. We released an improved version of the Performance Reporting (PR) Tool to simplify SD reporting, and developed a Wiki application to improve collaborations with and among members of the SD Network. We also conducted Agency wide consultations to prepare and approve CRA SD Strategy 2011-2014.
Conclusion
We met the main objectives of the National Action Plan 2010-2011 - we completed the outstanding SD activities and prepared the Agency to implement CRA SD Strategy 2011-2014. We continued to realize efficiencies that reduced our environmental impacts and conserved resources. However, we missed our paper target by recording an increase in office paper use for the first time since 2004. This underscores the need to maintain our efforts for continual improvement. We further integrated SD into our business operations and improved the organization and management of the SD Program. Overall, we met 11 of the 14 targets presented in the National Action Plan 2010-2011, and we will continue work on the remaining targets in the new SD strategy.
Footnote 1 "Mostly met" means that a target achieved at least 75% progress but was not completed.
Footnote 2 The Sustainable Development Innovation Fund (SDIF) provides financial support for projects proposed by employees that contribute to corporate efficiencies and sustainable development.
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