Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy 2019-20

This supplementary information table supports the commitment in the Federal Sustainable Development Act (FSDA) to make environmental decision-making more transparent and accountable to Parliament. It also contributes to an integrated, whole‑of‑government view of activities supporting environmental sustainability.

1. Introduction to the Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy

The 2016 to 2019 Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS) presents the Government of Canada’s sustainable development goals and targets, as required by the Federal Sustainable Development Act. Shared Services Canada (SSC) adheres to the principles of the FSDS, and while not bound formally by the Act, supports reporting on the implementation of the Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy (DSDS).

2. Sustainable development in Shared Services Canada

SSC’s DSDS for 2017 to 2020 describes the department’s actions in support of achieving the Low-Carbon Government goal. This supplementary information table presents available results for the departmental actions pertinent to this goal. Previous years’ supplementary information tables are posted on SSC’s website.

3. Departmental performance by FSDS goal

The following tables provide performance information on departmental actions in support of the FSDS goal listed in section 2.

Context: Low-Carbon Government

SSC is contributing to the goal of low-carbon government and the FSDS target to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions from federal government buildings and fleets by 40% below 2005 levels by 2030, with an aspiration to achieve it by 2025.” As part of its data centre consolidation strategy, SSC is establishing more energy efficient enterprise data centres (EDCs) and decommissioning less efficient legacy data centres ^{Footnote 1}. SSC is also reducing the carbon impacts of its fleet by purchasing zero emissions vehicles.

SSC also has significant influence over federal indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the IT equipment and infrastructure it procures and contributes to the goal of low-carbon government through green procurement. The results achieved below outline how environmental considerations were taken into account as part of the procurement decision-making process for the replacement of aging infrastructure specifically, per the departmental action identified in SSC’s Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy for 2017 to 2020.

With respect to demonstrating innovative technologies, in 2019-20, SSC developed and launched one Innovative Solutions Challenge focused on the development of innovative green technologies – the Plastics E Waste Challenge, meeting its target.

Low-Carbon Government: The Government of Canada leads by example by making its operations low-carbon
FSDS target(s)	FSDS contributing action(s)	Corresponding departmental action(s)	Starting point(s) Performance indicator(s) Target(s)	Results achieved	Contribution by each departmental result to the FSDS goal and target
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from federal government buildings and fleets by 40% below 2005 levels by 2030, with an aspiration to achieve it by 2025.	Support the transition to a low-carbon economy through green procurement.	SSC will integrate environmental performance considerations into the procurement decision-making process for the replacement of aging infrastructure. SSC will commit to using clean electricity in its EDCs. SSC will disclose GHG emissions from EDCs.	Starting point: Not Available Performance indicator: Percentage of electricity used in EDCs classified as clean. Target: TBD. Consultations with Data Centre Services Branch to establish a target are ongoing.	Result: In 2019-20, 90.81% of electricity used in Government of Canada (GC) owned EDCs (i.e. EDC Borden) was classified as clean ^{Footnote 2}. SSC set a minimum mandatory requirement for LEED Silver certification as part of the EDC procurement processes for EDCs Barrie, Gatineau and Montreal. All three facilities have been certified at the LEED gold level. In 2019-20, SSC reported on GHG emissions from GC owned EDCs (i.e. EDC Borden) in accordance with the Greening Government Strategy. GHG emissions from EDC Borden in fiscal year 2019–20 = 316 tCO2e.	FSDS: By integrating environmental performance considerations (e.g. the LEED industry standard certification process) into the procurement process for EDCs and using clean electricity in GC-owned EDCs, SSC contributes to the FSDS goal of reducing GHG emissions from federal buildings. UN SDG: SDG 13 – Target 13.2
		SSC will promote Canada School of Public Service course C215 – Green Procurement, primarily to functional specialists in procurement and/or materiel management.	Starting point: Not Available Performance indicator: Percentage of procurement and/or materiel management specialists who have completed the Canada School of Public Service Green Procurement course (C215) or equivalent. Target: TBD* * Consultations with the Procurement Policy, Governance, Engagement and Training Directorate to establish a target are ongoing	Result: In 2019-20 60% (102/169) of designated specialists in procurement and materiel management were trained in green procurement ^{Footnote 3}.	FSDS: Green procurement incorporates environmental criteria into purchasing decisions. Procurement agents who are trained to apply such criteria can award contracts to suppliers with a reduced GHG footprint. This is expected to motivate suppliers to reduce GHG emissions associated with their goods, services and supply chains. UN SDG: SDG 12 - Target 12.7
	Demonstrate innovative technologies	SSC will contribute to Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) by sponsoring the development and adoption of technological innovation for a greener government	Starting point: Not Available Performance indicator: Number of ISC Challenges funded by SSC focused on the development of innovative green technologies Target: Develop and launch one ISC Challenge in FY 2019-20.	Result: In 2019-20, SSC developed and launched one ISC Challenge focused on the development of innovative green technologies – the Plastics E Waste Challenge. This challenge is funded by SSC and is specifically focused on developing a solution for the recycling of e-waste plastics and metals, that can be leveraged by the GC ^{Footnote 4}.	FSDS: Funding and sponsoring the development of an innovative solution for the recycling of e-waste plastics corresponds to the FSDS contributing action “demonstrate innovative technologies.” The Plastics E Waste Challenge will support domestic action and innovation on plastics and is intended to help green government operations. UN SDG: SDG 12 – Target 12.7

4. Report on integrating sustainable development

During the 2019–20 reporting cycle, SSC had no proposals that required a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and no public statements were produced.

Footnotes

Footnote 1

Since all of the EDCs have design Power Utilization Effectiveness (PUE) factors of 1.5 or better, as IT workloads move from the legacy data centres (which are assumed to have a PUE of approximately 2.0) to the EDCs, the environmental impact of Government of Canada data centres will improve. Note that PUE is a ratio that describes how efficiently a computer data centre uses energy.

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Footnote 2

By choosing to locate the current complement of EDCs in Ontario and Quebec, SSC is able to take advantage of the fact that Electricity Utility providers in these provinces primarily supply clean energy. Based on 2018 data, Ontario’s electricity is 90.81% clean and Quebec’s is 99.94% clean.

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Footnote 3

Note: The result captures the number of Purchasing and Supply (PG) specialists in Procurement and Vendor Relations (PVR) trained in green procurement.

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Footnote 4

Once a solution has been developed SSC could: Purchase the solution to safely and sustainably dispose of its own e-waste; offer this solution as an “E-Waste Management Service” to its clients; and/or include this solution as an environmental criteria for green procurement when purchasing electronic devices for the GC.

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Date modified:: 2023-10-31

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