The Canadian federal government currently spends $23.5 billion on goods and services and has plans to improve the environmental performance of most of its purchasing decisions. Many Canadian provincial and local governments have similar green purchasing efforts under way.

With the support of a national environmental label identifying greener products, good collaboration among green purchasing professionals and extensive environmental purchasing policies, Canadian government purchasers have a lot to teach the rest of the world about integrating environmental and social considerations into the purchasing process.

Early Canadian federal focus

Canadian government purchasers at the federal, provincial and local levels have been promoting greener purchasing since the 1980s. Recognizing the connection between environmental challenges and purchasing decisions, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney made green purchasing a national priority at a June 1988 global warming conference in Toronto.

At the event, Mulroney announced the creation of his "Environmentally-Friendly Goods Campaign." The central focus of the campaign was creation of a national environmental label to make it easier for consumers and government purchasers to identify and buy more environmentally preferable products. Making it easier to buy greener products would increase demand for those products, thereby reducing the adverse environmental impacts of their manufacture.

A few weeks later, Environment Canada, the Canadian equivalent of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, launched the EcoLogo program. Modeled after the German Blue Angel program created in 1978, EcoLogo became North America's first environmental leadership standard certification and labeling program.

Like its German counterpart, EcoLogo is an environmental label awarded to goods and services that meet a tough environmental standard. Consumers can look for products bearing the EcoLogo certification mark, and government purchasers can require that products be EcoLogo-certified.

Like the German Blue Angel, Green Seal and other legitimate environmental labels, EcoLogo standards are developed in an open, consensus-based process and are designed so that only the top 20 percent of offerings in a given product or service category can meet the standard. The EcoLogo standards are based on an examination of the environmental impacts that occur throughout a product's life cycle from the impacts of the raw materials, the manufacturing, distribution, use and disposal of the products.

After a product or service passes an independent audit to confirm it meets the EcoLogo standard and pays a licensing fee to support the program, the product can use the EcoLogo certification to promote its environmental superiority.

Canadian government purchasers rely extensively on EcoLogo certification to identify more environmentally preferable products. Contracts for cleaning products, paints, copiers, electricity, and more than 100 other products routinely require EcoLogo certification.

While originally launched in Canada, EcoLogo is used by purchasers throughout North America.

Toronto: Green procurement pioneer

Under the leadership of Lou Pagano, Toronto's director of purchasing and materials management, and others, Toronto has long managed one of North America's premier green purchasing programs. Like similar programs, Toronto began with a focus on recycled paper and other recycled-content products in the mid-1980s. As the purchasing managers learned more about the environmental impacts of their purchasing decisions, however, they began expanding their focus beyond a narrow focus on recycled content to include additional environmental considerations.

Toronto strives to examine multiple environmental considerations as part of every purchase. More than 90 percent of the copy paper it purchases (236.8 million sheets), for example, contains recycled content. The copy paper is also certified to EcoLogo CCD-77, which addresses paper mill efficiencies, bleaching methodologies and other environmental factors in addition to recycled content.

According to Lou Pagano, other recent green purchasing focus areas include:

• Alternatively fueled vehicles
• Asphalt containing 20% recycled asphalt
• Envelopes certified to EcoLogo CCD-80
• Fuel- and water-efficient street sweepers
• Green electricity (at least 25% of electricity purchases)
• Integrated pest management services
• Janitorial cleaning chemicals certified to one of several EcoLogo standards
• Lighting
• Low-VOC work stations, office furniture and entry mats
• Non-toxic pens and markers
• Paint certified to EcoLogo CCD-76
• Plywood for use indoors certified to the GreenGuard standard
• Recycled content plastic lumber meeting EcoLogo CCD-127 for use in boardwalks and park benches
• Recycled toner cartridges
• Recycled-content plastic traffic channelizers
• Rot-resistant FSC-certified lumber without chromium copper arsenate
• Toilet paper certified to EcoLogo CCD-82 and FSC
• Water-based traffic paint