Reporting on Greening Government
This supplementary information table supports reporting on green procurement activities in accordance with the Policy on Green Procurement.
Part A - Greening Government Context
NRCan is bound by the Federal Sustainable Development Act but did not develop an optional 2022–23 Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy (DSDS) Report. Instead, to comply with the reporting requirements under the Policy on Green Procurement for 2022-2023, the Reporting on Greening Government supplementary information table was prepared and listed in the 2022–23 Departmental Results Report.
The Greening Government Strategy sets ambitious targets and outlines actions to achieve them, including lowering GHG emissions, becoming carbon neutral and implementing greening efforts into procurement. With the goal of achieving carbon neutral in real property and fleet operations, the Government of Canada will reduce absolute GHG emissions. The reductions aim to achieve 40% by 2025 and at least 90% below 2005 levels by 2050.
NRCan is developing a Departmental Greening Strategy that will advance the creation and implementation of a roadmap and action plan to achieve multiple greening targets, including greenhouse gas reduction, climate resilience and other greening metrics in the Greening Government Strategy, such as green procurement. This work will be combined with a comprehensive Real Property Portfolio Strategy that will seek to adjust the portfolio to its needs and that will direct Net Zero Carbon as a standard for new construction. On the fleet side, a review of the fleet management, review of the fleet requirements and five-year operational plan to support the procurement of zero-emission vehicles within the Department are underway.
Various activities were initiated, such as initiating the procurement process for two energy performance contracts, updating a carbon neutral study of a laboratory facility, completing a feasibility study to implement a high temperature heat pump and reinstate energy/GHG management, and continuous building optimization tasks. NRCan is also exploring clean technology applications for their own operations, for example by integrating into one of its buildings a ground source heat pump that uses CO2 as its refrigerant. With the help of PSPC, NRCan now has a purchase agreement in place for clean electricity to power departmental buildings in Saskatchewan and Alberta, which will help the department meet Federal Clean Electricity Commitments.
PART B – GREENING GOVERNMENT TABLE
Greening Government: The Government of Canada will transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient, and green operations
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actions supporting the Greening Government goal and the Policy on Green Procurement | Departments will use environmental criteria to reduce the environmental impact and ensure best value in government procurement decisions | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Departments will adopt clean technology and undertake clean technology demonstration projects | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| Support for green procurement will be strengthened, including guidance, tools and training for public service employees | Encourage new procurement employees to complete the optional Green Procurement course |
Indicator: Percentage of employees in procurement who have completed training on green procurement. Starting point: 2022-23 Target: 90 % by 2023-2024 |
In 2022-23, 64 % of employees in procurement have completed training on green procurement. |
Green procurement incorporates environmental criteria into purchasing decisions. Procurement officers 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. This departmental result aligns with SDG 13 – Climate Action and contributes to achieving target 13.3 - Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning. |
Report on integrating sustainable development
NRCan will continue to ensure that its decision-making process includes consideration of FSDS goals and targets through its strategic environmental assessment (SEA) process. A SEA for a policy, plan or program proposal includes an analysis of the impacts of the given proposal on the environment, including on relevant FSDS goals and targets.
Public statements on the results of NRCan’s assessments are made public when an initiative that has undergone a detailed SEA (see here). The purpose of the public statement is to demonstrate that the environmental effects, including the impacts on achieving the FSDS goals and targets, of the approved policy, plan or program have been considered during proposal development and decision-making.
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