Municipalities spend billions of dollars through their procurement decisions and this presents an opportunity for municipalities to use their purchasing power to advance their policy and community goals. Applying an environmental and social lens to their purchasing decisions is critical for putting municipal money to work.

For too long, purchasing decisions have not factored in operational, environmental and social costs into their decision making. This has resulted in decisions that are inconsistent and undermine progress on the environmental and social policies and longer term economic goals of the municipality. While many municipalities have sustainable procurement wording in their Procurement by-laws, the practices and procedures that ensure those lifecycle ownership costs, and environmental and social costs and benefits are not brought into purchasing decisions in a standardized and consistent manner across municipal purchasing decisions.

This Sustainable Procurement Resource Hub provide sharings across municipalities on their sustainable procurement practices and lessons learned as well as leading practices that put procurement goals into practice.