Guidelines for environmentally responsible procurement

Environmentally responsible procurement is about improving environmental outcomes where ministry buyers can apply a lens that addresses B.C. government's strategic priorities. It involves integrating environmental considerations throughout the procurement process, including assessing the need for the purchase and establishing environmental impact criteria. This also allows for the consideration of the entire life cycle of the goods or services being acquired, from resource extraction through to disposal.

These guidelines support procurement activities and do not supersede any existing policies, rules, and directives. To promote an environmentally responsible procurement, buyers can specifically include criteria in an RFx for goods or services that measure and evaluate a supplier’s environmental performance such as:

Reduce, reuse, and recycle

• Reducing waste, including hazardous waste 
• Containing recycled content and are recyclable
• Are reusable, or higher quality that leads to longer life
• End-of-life recyclability, take-back, or repairability
• Using renewable resources

Improve, support, and limit

• Improving energy and water efficiency
• Supporting the protection of biodiversity
• Supporting climate action by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air contaminants, and to help prepare for and adjust to the current and projected impacts of climate change
• Limiting toxic and hazardous substances

Why is environmentally responsible procurement important?

Buying environmentally responsible goods and services minimizes environmental impacts, enhances environmental benefits to society, and provides better total value for taxpayer dollars.

At its core, environmentally responsible procurement is about achieving better overall value for money. It considers important factors such as cost, performance, availability, quality, and environmental performance over the entire life cycle of the good or service being purchased.

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