Shared Services Canada includes environmental sustainability in procurement

Recognition for the GC's WTD National Master Standing Offer for Microcomputers environmental stewardship include:
- 2007 Summit Magazine (procurement trade magazine) Green Procurement Award
- 2010 PWGSC ADM’s Green Procurement Award
- 2013 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Report of Green Procurement recognised the NMSO as representing the best practice in the adoption of green criteria in a procurement solicitation
- 2015 - 2020 Global Electronics Council EPEAT Purchaser Award
Recognizing the impact and importance of climate change, the Government of Canada (GC) is changing the way it operates to reduce environmental impacts wherever possible.
Shared Services Canada (SSC) supports the Greening Government Strategy in a variety of ways – including changing the way we buy goods and services. SSC awards thousands of contracts for IT goods and services each year with a combined value of roughly $4 billion, giving the department a tremendous opportunity to champion more sustainable manufacturing practices by requiring vendors meet environmental standards.
This is just one of the ways the Government is working to meet its goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, support the growth of Canadian clean technology producers and increase the resiliency of assets, services, and operations in the face of a changing climate.
These activities align with the GC's Policy on Green Procurement, which requires that the procurement of goods and services actively promote environmental stewardship by using the government's buying power to aid the transition to a low carbon economy.
“By their nature, information technology goods and services often have a significant impact on the environment,” says David Alloggia, the lead Analyst on Green Procurement within SSC's Procurement and Vendor Relations (PVR) team.
“People across SSC, and across government, recognize the importance of this issue and the opportunities that exist, and they want to be engaged. This has injected a lot of energy and activity into this portfolio.”
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Eco requirements
SSC procurements increasingly require vendors to address the topics of sustainable manufacturing and environmentally friendly goods.
For example, the main vehicle through which the GC buys laptops, desktop computers, tablets, desktop displays and more -- the Workplace technology Devices (WTD) National Master Standing Offer (NMSO) for Microcomputers -- requires all devices to be certified through an independent eco-label. An eco-label such as Energy Star or Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) certifies that products or services are proven to be more environmentally friendly than those not certified. This may refer to the use of recycled materials in production, increased energy efficiency, waste minimization and integrating life-cycle principles and product stewardship.
"The NMSO has evolved a lot since it was first established in 1988,"
"It's been constantly re-competed to capture new technology and new device architecture. In those years we have proactively encompassed initiatives concerning environmental stewardship, the inclusion of small and medium-sized businesses and under-represented groups (including Indigenous-owned businesses), ethical supply chain and the availability of assistive technology."
Kirk has been working on the NMSO since joining Supply and Services Canada in 1988 and has championed the inclusion of environmental concerns on the microcomputer standing offer, beginning with the creation of a green computer category in 1994.
EPEAT recognition
Today, the NMSO's environmental requirements are even better defined thanks to more sophisticated eco-label standards for things like ethical supply chains and recycling and waste remediation. The NMSO specifically demands EPEAT Gold certification.
Managed by the Global Electronic Council (GEC), EPEAT is one of the world's premier eco-label certifications and it focuses specifically on sustainable information technology. GEC has recognized SSC for its green procurement every year since 2014. SSC is one of very few government departments around the world to achieve this recognition.
"Shared Services Canada is one of the best examples of how public procurement can meet the needs of government workers while doing good for the planet and providing cost savings for taxpayers"
SSC's requirement for EPEAT in IT procurements provides Canadians with benefits that go beyond sustainability. The increased efficiency of EPEAT-compliant IT products purchased from 2014-2020 will save the government more than $142,542,405 million. And over the last six years, SSC procurement of EPEAT-registered IT products:
- reduced 234,231 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions -- equal to taking 50,156 cars off the road for a year,
- reduced 16,289 metric tons of solid waste, and
- avoided 2,288 metric tons of hazardous waste. Footnote 1
Mandating EPEAT compliance generates additional benefits beyond pure environmentalism. EPEAT-registered products originate from more socially responsible supply chains. So, by making EPEAT a contract requirement helps improve the working conditions for workers within global electronics sector supply chains.

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