In any initiative to build a greener procurement system, information technology buying is bound to be in the mix. So the channel community will want to pay attention to the work of Greening Greater Toronto.
An initiative of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, Greening Greater Toronto has formed a working group with over 25 senior executives from organizations such as BMO Financial, Sears Canada and Telus, with the goal of encouraging local business and government to adopt green procurement practices.
The members of the working group, dubbed the Green Procurement Leadership Council, represent $40 billion in annual buying power so channel partners will want to pay attention to the group’s proposals for procurement reform.
Keir Brownstone, director, environment and sustainability with Greening Greater Toronto, said there has traditionally been a divide between the business community and the public sector, and this program aims to bring the two groups together to find common solutions around the environment.
The first step around greener procurement came last month, when the group hosted a green procurement marketplace as part of the Ontario Centres of Excellence conference in Toronto, showcasing about 20 companies that offer a wide array of green solutions, from cleaning products to renewable energy.
“The idea was to help people understand there are green solutions for just about any need in the market,” said Brownstone. “The focus was on Ontario and Canadian companies. It was also an opportunity to speak to procurement professionals and ask them what they’re doing, and what they need.”
The next step is to begin building a green procurement toolbox. While some companies are pretty far down the road with aggressive sustainability targets, Brownstone said there are many other companies without a clear idea of what a green mandate is. A toolbox will help them build their own projects, and a portal to look for green products and solutions is also planned.
“We want to engage organizations and find best practices and certifications for our programs, and engage with people already doing work here,” said Brownstone.Brownstone Technology has an important role to play, he said, both in giving companies greener IT options but also in enabling greener working opportunities, such as teleworking.
“I think engaging the IT sector to help develop not just products and services but also programs is an important piece of this,” said Brownstone. “It’s one thing to say we’d like you to buy recycled paper, but if you’re still doing single-sided copying and printing of every e-mail that’s not necessarily a step forward. IT is certainly going to be a big part of bringing it all together.”
As the program advances, Brownstone said channel partners will have the opportunity to join a database of certified green service providers. The database, which will be available to Toronto-area procurement professionals, will include information such as a provider’s green attributes as well as the economic and financial outcomes for a business around proposed green solutions.
