Green Procurement Reporting for Departments and Agencies Not Bound by the Federal Sustainable Development Act

Departments and agencies bound by the Policy on Green Procurement but not the Federal Sustainable Development Act must complete mandatory reporting, in compliance with Section 7 of the Policy on Green Procurement.⁵

Strategies/Comments

Approach: The DG, Finance and Contracting coordinated strategies with key internal stakeholders in the Judicial, Registry and Corporate Services Branches to align key individuals to deal with Greening Government Operations, in line with the preliminary objectives stated below. To enhance its efforts with respect to green procurement, in 2011–12, CAS prepared specific green procurement targets for 2012–13 and published these targets in the 2012–13 Report on Plans and Priorities.

Management Processes and Controls: To ensure that its contracting documents included a clause addressing environmental considerations in the performance of the work required, an environmental considerations clause was added to the checklist of requirements for dealing with contracts starting in 2012–13. Contracting and Materiel Management will ensure that environmental performance specifications are incorporated in the initial bid documentation. Additional statistics for tracking quantity of cartridges used were implemented, resulting in a move to reduce toner usage.

Training: CAS ensured that all existing functional specialists take CSPS Course 215 on Green Procurement by the end of fiscal year 2011–12. New functional specialists were required to take the course within 6 months of being hired. Training on Green Procurement for key acquisition cardholders as well as the members of the Contract Review Committee was planned in 2011–12 and will be completed in 2012–13.

Preliminary Objectives:

• Ensured that all paper purchased had at least 30% recycled content
• Contracting personnel began the process of consolidating requests to increase use of bulk buys to save on packaging and reduce deliveries, thereby reducing the carbon emissions.
• CAS ensured that all printers and multi-function machines acquired included duplexing functionality.
• Ensured that all toner cartridges purchased are recyclable

Other Related Initiatives:

• CAS continued its planning to facilitate the reduction in paper consumption through the implementation of e-filing and digital recording solutions. This objective will be realised over the longer term as this initiative requires a substantial investment of resources and is dependent or an integral part of CAS’ Information Technology investment plan.
• CAS consolidated most of its corporate functions, resulting in elimination of most of its mail deliveries and reducing its carbon emissions.
• The initiative to reduce paper acquisition was commenced in 2011–12, through examination of the possibility that the default setting for all printers and photocopiers can be set to double-sided format. This process will be completed in 2012–13.
• CAS’ volume of videoconferences increased in 2011–12, resulting in increased reduction in travel and carbon emissions.

Endnotes

5. Alternatively, departments and agencies bound by the Policy on Green Procurement but not the Federal Sustainable Development Act (FSDA) may follow the approach required of FSDA departments for green procurement by setting and reporting on green procurement  

Internal Audits Table

1. Source: 2009–10 DPR  

2. Source: 2010–11 DPR

3. Source: 2011–12 RPP (other non-tax revenue revenue has been reallocated to activity)

Other notes:

(a) At the Courts Administration Service (CAS), non-respendable revenues consist primarily of fees levied for filing documents within the registries and for sales of photocopies of judgments and other revenues such as fines imposed by the Courts (i.e. contempt of Court, criminal conviction, etc.).

(b) CAS has no control over court fines, as they are imposed by judicial officers. Predicting these fines is entirely dependent on the case being brought before the judiciary.

(c) Other non-tax revenue consists of refunds of prior year expenditures and other minor non-respendable revenues. However, the primarily component of “Other Non-Tax Revenue” is derived from the Employment Insurance (EI) Account of Canada ($1.6M in 2011–12). At the end of each fiscal year, CAS determines the cost associated with the administration of Employment Insurance cases. The total cost allocated by CAS for handling EI cases is expended against Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), the department responsible for the EI account. As such, HRSDC shows an EI expense and CAS shows an equivalent, non-respendable revenue item. The purpose of this accounting exercise is to more accurately reflect the total cost of running the federal government's EI program and it is strictly internal to the government.

(d) Numbers in columns may not add up due to rounding.