Excellence in green procurement award given to Shared Services Canada
January 13, 2016
Shared Services Canada’s (SSC) commitment to environmental standards was recognized with a 2015 EPEAT Purchaser Awards, in recognition of environmental leadership, demonstrated by the green procurement of electronics in 2014.
The EPEAT Awards were initiated in 2015 and are distributed by the Green Electronics Council, a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization which developed the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), a standard for greener electronics used by the US Department of Energy.
SSC is the sole Government of Canada recipient of the EPEAT award. SSC would like to recognize the contributions of Public Services and Procurement Canada (formerly Public Works and Government Services Canada), which originally implemented environmental stewardship standards in the micro-computer National Master Standing Offer that was transferred to SSC along with hardware procurement authorities. These environmental stewardship policies have become a mainstay of SSC’s green procurement strategy.
Assessment criteria for procurement of green electronics within government include environmental performance considerations and potential impacts and costs associated over the life cycle of goods, including use and disposal. Other environmental factors that may be reviewed are the manufacturing process; reduction of hazardous materials; energy consumption; performance and quality; as well as design for re-use, recycling and packaging.
Green procurement standards
The federal government is a significant purchaser of hardware and SSC has leveraged its buying power to ensure the environmentally responsible procurement of electronic goods within the GC. Through the promotion of environmental sustainability and integrating environmental performance considerations in its procurement processes, SSC is playing a leadership role to increase environmental standards and produce environmentally preferable goods.
Green procurement standards are set within the context of achieving value for money, which align with SSC’s core values of service, innovation and value.
“SSC is proud to support the acquisition and distribution of greener goods and services through responsible procurement of hardware and electronics,” said Alan Manara, Director General of Workplace Technology Devices.
“As active users of technology, we can all take pride in our shared commitment to greening government operations by reducing the environmental footprint, consumption and waste.”
Measurable benefits for the environment
Over their lifetime, EPEAT registered electronics purchased by SSC in 2014 will result in environmental reductions including:
- 38,932,724 kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to power 3, 048 US households for one year
- 3,978 kg of toxins, including enough mercury to fill 1,574 mercury fever thermometers
- 563,703 kg of solid waste, equal to the annual solid waste generated by 301 US households
- 13,477,540 kg of primary materials, equal to the weight of 371 tractor-trailer 18-wheelers
- 120,471 kg of hazardous waste, equivalent to the weight of 979 refrigerators
- 6,462,759 kg of carbon dioxide, equivalent to removing 4, 646 average US passenger cars from the road for one year
- 25,841 metric tons of air emissions
- 64 metric tons of water emissions
Statistics courtesy of the Green Electronics Council